Discrediting strategy as a tool of anti-Russian propaganda in the speeches of German politicians

Abstract

The study aims to characterise the linguistic means of implementing the strategy of discrediting Russia and Russian foreign policy activities in the speeches of German politicians. The paper discusses speech techniques for the implementation of communicative intent, which consists in deliberately discrediting Russia’s foreign policy and purposefully creating an image of the enemy, and also analyses their influencing potential from the standpoint of functional pragmalinguistics. The scientific novelty of the study lies in an attempt to systematise the linguistic means used by German politicians to form a negative attitude of the audience and to justify their influencing power. As a result of the study, the author finds that the discrediting strategy is implemented in the following tactics: the dehumanisation tactics, the accusation tactics and the intimidation tactics. These tactics imply the use of a set of speech techniques the influencing power of which is aimed at creating a negative image (dehumanisation) of the object of discrediting, as well as at accusing this object of criminal actions and instilling a sense of fear of the scale of emerging threats and the consequences of the actions carried out by the object of discrediting.

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