Svitlana Jaroszynski1; David Williams2; 1 Florida State University , United States; 2 Florida Atlantic University, United States
Discussion
In July 2021, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin published an article “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” The article appeared on the official website of the Russian president in Russian, and simultaneously in English and Ukrainian translations. While public addresses in Russian seem natural for the President of Russia, translations of his speeches and articles into other languages play a strategic role of targeting audiences outside of the Russian Federation. Unlike official English translations that regularly accompany Mr. Putin’s addresses, the Ukrainian translation of the above article was the only text in Ukrainian that ever appeared on his official website. In the paper, we review the political and cultural context within which Putin’s article appeared; examine the choice for multiple translations and the variations in meaning generated in the different translations; and explore the implications of those variations in the argumentative strength and rhetorical effectiveness of Putin’s article.
