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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

events are predictable. Thus, the articles of these authors are
within the formed mainstream of the "publisher – author –
reader" media symbiosis. Examining the content of articles
included in the study sample, we can easily identify the outlines
of the ideological link between the newspaper and its audience.

For instance, the Italian "La Stampa" and the Swiss "Blik" are
convinced that the doctors who arrived in Italy previously
worked in Syria and no help can be expected from them, as they
can be unable to save patients due to being experts in biological
weapons [20; 26]. The Danish "Jyllands-Posten" states
ironically: Putin "took on the role of savior of the world and sent
aircraft with aid in the form of medical equipment to Serbia,
Italy, and the USA ‘from Russia with love’. <…> But the grim
reality has caught up with the authors <…> of aid campaigns
intended as a goodwill campaign on behalf of Putin and his
sanctioned country" [27] and "La Stampa" clarifies that today
"Russia, being in an emergency situation due to coronavirus,
helps us guided not at all by the extremely limitless kindness of
its people and the traditional friendship connecting the two
countries, therefore, the fate of Italy is at stakes" [20]. "Putin is
invading", "Medical equipment supplies from Russia are
useless" [28], the Russian military "is two steps away from the
NATO military bases" [26] – those are the anxieties shared by
many European media.

A Russian politologist O. A. Belykh notes that "the direct
relationship between the tendentiousness of an article and the
growth of emotionality and aggression in its discussion" [29,
p. 41]. The positions of authors of newspaper articles and the
opinions of their readers on the help of Russia to Italy in the
fight against the pandemic are directly affected by the
dominance of the political myth of the union and mutual help of
the EU countries. While the mythologeme itself is not
questioned, the evaluations of its stability vary greatly.
Therefore, the mythogenesis takes place in current political
practice, which can result in two mutually exclusive outcomes:
either further development of the myth of European solidarity,
the cultural and historical community – the continuation of the
historical myth, or its destruction – the realization of the
operational myth. It is possible that, instead of the operational
myth, a bifurcation will emerge within the mythogenesis – either
the historical convergence with Russia in the renewed world or
the inevitable geopolitical confrontation with it. The final answer
will probably be provided by half of people that have not made
their decision yet, the one we discovered during the analysis of
readers’ responses. However, the "last-minute shift" is only
prognosed at the moment.

In the process of analyzing the Russian media, we identified the
following groups of semantic clusters and mythological concepts
(Table 1). We must note here that the repetition of lexemes
responsible for the formal illustration of the concept is
determined by the varying interpretations of it by different
authors. Therefore, the attribution of a certain lexeme to a
semantic cluster and a mythological concept was performed at
the contextual level and the level of semantic relation of a
lexeme to other lexemes in the text under examination. The
overall number of materials exceeds the number of examined
texts since many of them contained more than one concept
("Russia as a rescuer and a friend", "Russia as a political actor
and a tormentor", "Russia as a friend and an economic partner",
etc.). The manner in which the concept unfolded forms the
poetics of the myth in its narrative nature.

Table 1: Groups of semantic clusters and mythological concepts

Semantic

cluster/mythologic

al concept

Tone

Concept deployment

lexemes

Number of

materials

containing

mythological

concepts

Gratitude/"Russia

as a rescuer"

Positive

Italians, help,
magnanimity,

generosity, upscale, flag,

betrayal

Cultural interaction

and

solidarity/"Russia

as a friend"

Positive

Italians, the European
Union, borsch, home,

victim, friends, respect,

Russophobia

Welfare/"Russia as

an economic

partner"

Neutral

Italy, the European

Union, money,

sanctions, value

(material), crisis

(economic)

Independence/"Rus

sia as a political

actor"

Negative

Italy, the USA, the

European Union,

benefits (political),

resentment, indignation,

trust, trick, geopolitics,

diplomacy

Safety/"Russia as a

tormentor"

Negative

Italy, media, LaStampa,

futility, insolvency,

useless, profit,

discontent

The first two clusters ("Gratitude" and "Cultural interaction and
solidarity") contribute to the formation of a positive image of
Russia, reinforce positive assessment attitudes in the audience,
and have a positive tone. The "Welfare" cluster can be labeled as
contextually neutral: in the analysis of statements related to
gratuitous or beneficial nature of the help provided by Russia we
encountered various evaluations ranging from the justification of
the principle of reciprocated assistance to the demonization of
Russia as an open rival of the EU in general and Italy in
particular. Finally, the last two clusters ("Independence" and
"Safety") contribute to the formation of a negative image of
Russia and its reinforcement in the media discourse. Further on,
we will examine these clusters in greater detail.

The analyzed texts demonstrate an open polarization of the
forming mythological concepts fixating either the image of
Russia as an assistant selflessly helping those in need or the
image of Russia as a cunning political actor seeking to realize
their geopolitical interests at the expense of weakened Italy. An
observation important to note here is that in the formation of a
positive image of Russia the authors typically use the "Italians"
lexeme, while the negatively toned mythological concepts are
predominantly formed with the lexeme of "Italy". A concept
contributes to the deformation of the unity of a state and its
people in the consciousness of the audience, there is a sharp
distinction between the people who are positive towards Russia
and the government that is negative towards it. A comparison
can be made: "Italians thank Russia for help and scold the EU"
[30] versus "Italy demands apologies from Russia" [31].

Aside from the "Italians" lexeme, the "Gratitude" cluster
contains several unexpected variations of positive image
formation. A positive image of Russia is often built at the
expense of a simultaneously forming negative image of the EU
that did not come to the aid of Italy at a difficult moment. This
aspect is highlighted through the incorporation of mentions of
state symbols into the concept: "As a token of gratitude, Italians
remove the EU flags from the streets and hang Russian flags in
their place" [32].

In the "Cultural interaction and solidarity" cluster, it is worthy to
highlight several materials telling about borsch cooked by
Italians for Russian doctors: "Italians tried to thank their foreign
colleagues and cooked borsch as well as they could. Beside it,
they put a sign saying ‘Sorry, it’s our first time’" [33], "Many
users considered the Italians’ move touching. In the comments,
borsch was called a sign of respect and a beautiful gesture" [34].
We must note, that the "Italians" lexeme is actively used here as
well.

The "Welfare" cluster is attributed to the neutral type since it
contains both the diametrically opposed assessments of Russia's
economic interests in Italy and a wide range of neutral materials
without pronounced evaluations. Moreover, the formation of this
cluster and the corresponding mythological concept was
promoted by Vladimir Putin himself who said the following
about Russian help to Italy: "This is not a one-way street. In
Italy, we purchase pressure sensors without which the
production of ventilators in Russia would be impossible" [35].

The mythologization of Russia as a political actor aggressively
standing up for its interest is still common in Russian media
discourse – especially in its online part. The actively used

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