ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, I explore the emergence of the interview genre in Russia. Second, based on an analysis of Soviet and post-Soviet interviews, I focus on the genre’s development in Russia, especially with respect to examples of President Putin’s interviews. The analysis is restricted to published or publicised texts, with special attention paid to the strategies and tactics of the interviewer and interviewee, in particular to evasive tactics as opposed to aggressive ones, as well as to the correlation of the dialogical and monological components in political interviews. I analyse interviews by foreign correspondents with political leaders – tsars, general secretaries and presidents – to assess how they engage in conversations and how they present their image of Russia.
