Coronavirus pandemic in the modern Russian public discourse: threats, challenges and opportunities

The paper discusses specific features of public discourse connected with the COVID-19 pandemic andpolitical rhetoric of the Russian President under the conditions of the spread of coronavirus disease. Basedon the quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the media and the speeches of the President of theRussian Federation, the main thematic blocks that present the pandemic as a social threat with economic,political and social consequences significantly changing people’s daily lives are identified.The article provides an overview of the recent publications devoted to coronavirus infection, identifiesthe dominant thematic clusters, and shows that the thematic repertoire and their emotional componentvaried at different stages of the virus spread.The features of representation of social fears related to coronavirus in the domestic media have been described and analyzed. The main topics related to information distortion have been identified. Due to the dominance of publications on epidemiological and medical risks, economic and socio-political risks,including those triggered by a number of measures and restrictions caused by the pandemic, have takena back seat. The research revealed groups of metaphors that are most typical of various thematic clustersand it has become obvious that the metaphor of war and military operations dominate over the others.On the basis of the analysis of measures undertaken by the Russian Federation at different stages ofcoronavirus infection spread, the study identifies the main thematic blocks and dominant metaphors inV. Putin’s discourse strategies used in official speeches and addresses. The conclusion is made about the limited and closed nature of the President’s discourse as exclusively official, which was aimed at minimizingthe spread of negative and pessimistic forecasts.