Politics and the Ruling Group in Putin’s Russia pp 138-156 | Cite as
Are Russia’s Oligarchs Scapegoats? Some Empirical Evidence from the Russian Press
Abstract
This chapter analyses the social processes underlying the word frequency of the Russian wordoligarkh (oligarch) in the Russian press. As earlier research has shown, this expression has strong negative connotations in Russia (Gorshkov 2004; Gorshkov et al. 2006, pp. 252–62). Thus, a greater frequency of the word in the press not only implies, it expresses and even carries a negative social response towards this important and influential group of economic actors (Fruchtmann 2004a, 2004b, 2005, 2006). But how can we explain the significant changes in the frequency with which the word is used, and thus (implicitly) in public attitudes towards this important political issue? Which factors can best explain the related tendencies in the choice of words that refer to influential businessmen like Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky or Vladimir Potanin?
Keywords
Gross Domestic Product Word Frequency Russian Language Ruling Group Integrum DatabasePreview
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