The basic aim of the thesis is to investigate whether the Romans of the East (Byzantines) during the 6th to the 8th centuries were interested in the Latin west and the imperial rule over it. In the first part of the work, the various discourses concerning the origins of the Justinianic conquest or reconquest of Africa and Italy articulated in the contemporary sources are identified and evaluated; the only one which cannot be shown or supposed to have been officially articulated is the discourse of a source of Pseudo-Zachariah Scholasticus which makes African and maybe also Italian exulants complaining in the imperial court about the local rulers responsible for the Vandal and Gothic wars. After some other preliminary studies (e.g. concerning the so-called problem of Theodericʼs constitutional position), it is concluded that the emperor Justinian was not interested in an ideologically founded restoration of the empire, but made the western wars because of his contacts with western aristocrats. In the second part of the thesis, the presentation of the Justinianic western wars and western events or realities in the works of the Byzantine historians from Marcellinus Comes and Procopius to Theophylactus Simocatta (the 6th to the early 7th centuries) is investigated and an attempt is made to explore...

The thesis identifies and further examines the role of propaganda in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, more specifically in the period around the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by the Russian Federation in March 2014. Critical discourse analysis is employed in order to analyse selected speeches of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, relevant to the topic and in the period under investigation. The first chapter introduces a theoretical framework on propaganda in international relations, its definition, history and research. The methodology is described in detail in the second chapter. The historical context of the conflict is provided at the beginning of the empirical part of the thesis closely followed by a detailed analysis of the selected speeches. The findings support the prediction that there is a presence of propaganda identified within the speeches of both political leaders, thus in the conflict itself, and offer valuable insights into the hidden meanings and possible motives behind its use. The study advances our understanding of the phenomenon and helps us to expose and confront propaganda further.