Authors
Olga Vlasova1; 1 King's College London, UK Discussion
Emotions are increasingly recognised as central to political life, yet the ways in which governments shape collective emotions remain undertheorised. This paper develops a conceptual distinction between emotional governance and emotional manipulation across regime types.
Emotional governance refers to a deliberate and sophisticated attention to the emotional dynamics of the public, as part of the work of government, as well as corporations and non-governmental social authorities (Richards, 2007). Emotional governance can be realised through both civic-oriented engagement in democracies and regime-oriented stabilisation in autocracies. By contrast, emotional manipulation entails the exploitative use of emotions for individual, group, or regime advantage, often through fear appeals, scapegoating, or disinformation (Harbi, 2024; Dowding & Oprea, 2024; Riker, 1986; Whitfield, 2022; Kenzhekanova, Zhanabekova, & Konyrbekova, 2015).
The analytical value of this framework is demonstrated through a case study of Russia’s emotional governance and manipulation strategies during the war in Ukraine (2022 - 2025).
The study's critical discourse analysis is based on a dataset of 4,900 articles extracted from key TV channels, information agencies, newspapers, and official documents and speeches by government figures. The selected sources are: (1) Channel One as the main state television channel, (2) main information agencies, such as Ria Novosti, TASS, and Interfax, which stand as pillars of the Russian media landscape, providing a broad perspective on the national narrative; (3) influential newspapers (Moskovsky Komsomolets, Kommersant, and the official newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta), which contribute nuanced perspectives to the study; (4) government documents, official communications, and speeches, which were extracted from the President of the Russian Federation’s website (kremlin.ru) and the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation’s website (stat.mil.ru). These platforms were chosen for their authority and central role in disseminating information about the Russian war in Ukraine.
The study demonstrates how the Russian regime, at different times, combines governance strategies of pacification and demobilisation (2022-2024) with manipulative appeals to fear (2022-2025) and hope (2025). The study highlights the boundaries between governance and manipulation, underlining their implications for regime stability and authoritarian resilience. 
