Abstract
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 had a preamble. In 2014, when then president Yanukovych fled Ukraine in the course of the Maidan protests, the loss of its ally in Kyiv prompted Russia to instigate pro-Russian and military activities in Crimea. This culminated in Russia, after a disputed referendum, incorporating Crimea as a Russian republic on 18 March 2014. This article investigates how the widely read Russian weekly newspaper Argumenty i Facty (Arguments and Facts) portrayed the situation in the months prior and subsequent to the annexation of Crimea. In the period December 2013 to March 2014, Argumenty i Facty published 122 articles and opinion pieces on the Ukrainian and Crimean events. This study assesses Argumenty i Facty’s reasons to justify the annexation of Crimea, such as the plight of the sootechestvennik (literally “those who are with the fatherland”), referring to ethnic Russians residing outside Russia, Ukraine’s inferior quality of life compared to Russia’s “powerful economy” and nostalgic recalls of common history during Soviet times and in earlier centuries. The analysis of these articles points to differences in argumentation but also shows Russia’s mindset and determination to use any means necessary to redraw borders to its ends.