Imaginary Anglo-Saxons: The Anglosphere in Russia’s wartime narratives

Abstract

In recent years, the ethnonym ‘Anglo-Saxon’ has frequently appeared in geopolitical discourse. This trend has been most visible in Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. By analysing over 500 state media texts, this article deciphers the meanings of the so-called ‘Anglo-Saxons’ in Russia’s wartime narratives to understand how global actors cast the Anglosphere in geopolitical imagination. It identifies nine key narratives that construct the Anglosphere as a civilisational ‘other’, consistent with Eurasianism in Russian geopolitical thought. The findings demonstrate how Russia invokes the ‘Anglosphere as other’ to justify atrocities in Ukraine while seeking ontological security but it cautions against dismissing ‘Anglo-Saxons’ as a mere propaganda trope. Instead, it argues that the increasingly visible ‘Anglo-Saxon’ ethnonym signifies ongoing shifts in how global actors conceive geography and international order amid uncertainty and transformation. This article contributes to the burgeoning research agendas on the Anglosphere, Russian geopolitics, and non-Western civilisational discourse.