VLADIMIR PUTIN'S IMAGE OF THE WORLD: 'APOPHATIC' THINKING AS A POLITICAL PRINCIPLE

Fitting in with the current research paradigm, studies in the image of the world, as a system of principles that are used to organize a person's worldview, indicate that politicians' hidden intentions could be revealed by the semantic analysis of their verbal output. To this aim, we reconstructed the general tenets of the image of the world of the most prominent Russian politician - Vladimir Putin, analyzing his 2854 responses to questions in his live public interviews in 2010-2012 by means of the Information System Semograph (http://semograph.com). Graph-semantic model of Putin's image of the world reveals his current communication and activity strategies. Interpretation of this model suggests either integrity and consistency of the reconstructed image of the world or a careful forethought and verbal self-control even in live broadcast. Putin's image of the world is expressly rationalistic, however, appreciation becomes its important element in order to establish a total positive emotional climate. Denial is the central tenet of his image of the world, and it indicates a specific, privileged by the politician, 'apophatic' cognitive strategy that reveals the implicit context of fight.