This article proposes the analysis of synthetic personalization as a new approach in studying and understanding the legitimization of the Crimean annexation. Drawing upon Norman Fairclough, synthetic personalization is a discursive strategy that identifies how aspects of language, which are regarded as commonsensical and normal, have ideological power, as they can become manipulative and controlling. The application of synthetic personalization to the March 2014 address of Russian President Vladimir Putin draws the audience’s attention to traits that unify the masses and thus stimulate their individual features, in particular by relying on presuppositions. The article argues that the address legitimized the annexation of Crimea by framing the annexation as a result of a religious, military, and heterogeneous unity, which unified Crimea and Russia. The findings also question the impact of the one-sided production process and who is the actual producer of the address.

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Bowden himself has an evaluative and prescriptive world-view on offer, a vision of international plurality where greater attention is given to 'what we have in common' than to conflict (p. 231). He is at pains to separate this position from that of cosmopolitans from Kant to David Held, but does not fully clarify the distinction. As he states in the introduction, however, his intent is not to offer another system to replace those he critiques, but rather to encourage greater understanding of the ideational currents which have shaped those which we already have. On these terms, Bowden's rich book deserves a wide readership.