Foreign Threat(s): Vladimir Putin’s Securitisation of Separatism, Terrorism and the West

Relying on securitisation theory and analysing 115 televised statements by Vladimir Putin, this article shows how the Russian president securitised the threats of separatism, terrorism, and Western political, military and cultural interference with Russia’s independence and cultural singularity in the course of seven securitisation moves that occurred between 2000 and 2023. Moreover, this study reveals how Putin wove together these threats by building on their shared foreign nature and using similar linguistic techniques. The article argues that by 2022 Putin had managed to subsume the terrorist and separatist threats under the umbrella of ‘Western interference’. This strategy reinforced the potency of the securitisation process.