It’s your fault

Abstract While the problem still remains decriminalised in Russia, this study explores domestic violence victims’ storytelling in four episodes of the popular Russian talk show Pust’ Govoryat , which aired from 2017 to 2020. By drawing upon De Fina’s (2021) narratives-as-practice approach and van Leeuwen’s (2008) CDA theory, I critically examine storytelling as a discourse practice itself and situate constructed identities, norms, and values in wider dominant discourses of country’s social and political life. Corpus-assisted discourse analysis ( Baker 2012 ) helps to analyse the representation of abusers and victims. Qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that the show, broadcast on the main state-funded federal channel, propagates a family ideology that supports victim-blaming, normalises and depolitisises domestic violence. The research indicates that such an anti-feminist, misogynist, and patriarchal discourse becomes an integral part of the state’s anti-Western and anti-liberal ideology and resonates with the general increase in epistemological violence in today’s Russia.