Abstract
In the contemporary Russian political discourse, various types of metalanguage operators are used, which increase the expressiveness and emotionality of a politicianʼs speech, enhancing the pragmatic effect on the audience. The author investigates the manipulative potential of metalanguage operators in contemporary Russian political discourse. The research material was collected from transcripts of public speeches of leading Russian politicians-V. Putin and D. Medvedev. The author comes to the conclusion, that the main methods of intensifying the manipulative potential by using metalanguage operators in the political discourse are:
1) appeal to the recipientʼs experience;
2) an indication of the level of education and professional competence of the politician;
3) an indication of the sincerity and honesty of the politician;
4) mitigation of speech aggression;
5) expression of subjective assessment. The study showed that politicians often use metalanguage operators to comment and interpret proverbs and sayings, borrowed words and expressions, new and obsolete words, as well as jargon, argo and rude words.