In Volume Three of this four-volume series, we examine the rhetorical development that occurred during the first two terms of Vladimir Putins tenure as president of the Russian Federation. Initially, Putin appeared to follow in the path set by his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, vowing that Russia was, at heart, a European nation and would be a westward facing democracy going forward. He even mentioned partnering with the EU and NATO. Eight years later, at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, Putin excoriated the West for, in his words, attempting to create a unipolar world in which NATO expansion threatened Russias security, the United States acted as the worlds sole hegemon, and Europe simply followed orders, relinquishing any sense of agency in its own affairs.
