Extreme Rhetoric in the 2004 Presidential Campaign: Images Of Geopolitical and Regional Division

This article examines the most extreme discursive elements of political advertising in the 2004 presidential campaign in Ukraine. It deals with images of hostility, expression of ethnic phobias, and stereotypical schemes that were designed as remakes of Cold War motifs. The stereotypes in the discourse of the campaign served as populist references to different geopolitical orientations of the candidates, and as a vehicle for creating the conflicting identities of "two Ukraines." The discourse of extremes is analyzed within the context of an ideological transformation in the country that was determined by clashes between democratic and neo-totalitarian ways of thinking. The special focus of this article is to portray electoral rhetoric as one of those domains in public communication in which the image of identity takes shape.