Russia’S Post-Crimea Legitimization Discourse And Its Challenges For The Eap Countries

After the annexation of Crimea, Russia has not acknowledged either the violation of the international law or the infringement of sovereignty of Ukraine. Instead, Moscow has (mis-)used a series of arguments meant to justify its actions in Crimea both domestically and externally and to present an illegal act of breaching the basic international principles into a necessary, legitimate measure. Within this context, the article will attempt to decode the arguments of the Kremlin’s post-Crimea political discourse of legitimization, analysing their impact on Russia’s relations with the Eastern Partnership countries, and drawing attention to the theoretical problem regarding the legitimacy in international relations. The paper will use the qualitative content analysis as research method. We will examine mainly the content of speeches, statements, governmental documents and other relevant studies as primary and secondary data, and will focus on the main topics of Russia’s international legitimisation discourse after the annexation of Crimea.