The Russian Geopolitical Imaginaries and the war on Ukraine

This article analyzes how Russian elites construct geopolitical imaginaries of Ukraine that shape the perception of threat from the annexation of Crimea in 2014 to the ongoing war. Moving beyond mega-narratives such as NATO expansion, the study applies critical geopolitics to examine how spatial, historical, and civilizational narratives are deployed in political discourse to define territory, legitimacy, and adversaries. Using geopolitical discourse analysis of presidential speeches, doctrinal