Navigating accountability: How Russian English-speaking media framed the 2014 sanctions and the Skripal case

This article explores how Russian English-speaking media, Russia Today and Sputniknews, framed the roles of the West on one side and Russia on the other in the case of the imposition of Western sanctions against Russia in 2014, reacting to the outbreak of conflict in eastern Ukraine and the Crimea annexation, and in reaction to the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal in 2018. The text shows the peculiarities of the media’s techniques to convey specific narratives to an international audience. At the same time, the article contributes to the research focused on the role of media and information campaigns in conflict escalation. The results have shown that pro-Kremlin narratives clearly dominated the examined outlets’ discourses in both cases, albeit often veiled as objective journalism, masquerading opinions as standard news articles. The results have also demonstrated a growing emphasis on blaming, blame avoidance and moral judgment, deepening the rift between Russia and the West.