printDonald Trump’s Image:
a Symbol of Disunion in the Discourse of Russian Conservatives
Pain E.A.
Dr. Sci. (Politics), PhD in History (Ethnology), Leading Researcher, Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia painea@mail.ru
Pain E.A. Donald Trump’s Image: a Symbol of Disunion in the Discourse of Russian Conservatives. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2026. No 4. P. 18-30
This article continues the research on the ideological diversity “multi-coloured” nature of modern Russian conservatism based on discourse analysis and content analysis of Telegram channels. This issue addresses the connection between political processes in Russia and the changes in the world following Donald Trump’s return to the presidency of the United States. Trump’s image serves as an analytical tool – a “symbolic knot” that reveals the ideological similarities and differences among the representatives of the three segments of the Russian conservative field, which are referred to as “white,” “red,” and “green.” The theoretical basis of the study is a combination of Lacroix-Mouffe’s discursive theory and the alternative concept of “contextual realism.” The author argues against the poststructuralist exaggeration of the role of discourse and its autonomy in the socio-political sphere. Empirical examples demonstrate the limitations of the arbitrary influence of discourse on political behavior. These limitations related, on the one hand, to the stable ideological frames of the three currents of Russian conservatism, and, on the other hand, to the dynamics of the geopolitical context associated with changes in Donald Trump’s policies.
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