Verbal armament and the demonic: Putin's rhetorical preparation for war

Starting from the concept of the demonic, which is understood along the lines of S & oslash;ren Kierkegaard, Paul Tillich, and Fedor Stepun as a cognitive and emotional narrowing, the article analyzes Vladimir Putin's verbal armament up to 24 February 2022 and beyond (18 March, 9 May, 9 June 2022). The reason why the announcements of the invasion were not understood as actual announcements is that demonic action lies beyond instrumentally rational comprehension. A discourse analysis of the demonic in a cognitive and rhetorical sense is therefore developed as an analytically preventive means of recognizing such speech in its dangerousness. The basic principles of the demonic in communicative action are already shown by Kierkegaard with his metaphor of the spinning top of the demonic which is permanently turning around its own axis, and in Tillich's characterization of the demonic as a "claim of something finite to infinity." Primarily in four complex speech acts, SACRALIZATION, ALARMING, THREATENING, and JUSTIFICATION, demonical rhetoric revolves around an object that forms the axis of a spinning top. Such rhetorical rotation around the object "Russia" and its greatness can be seen in Putin's speeches and performances since the beginning of his presidency.