Abstract
The article is devoted to the identification and investigation of the pragmatic and cognitive characteristics of phraseological units in political discourse in the Czech Republic and Russia. Phraseological units realize a pragmatic function: they can influence the recipient's consciousness, form his emotional state and attitude to the situation and encourage to certain political actions.
In the process of communication the speaker conveys hidden meanings by appealing to the con- notative potential of phraseological units and background knowledge of the recipient in certain conditions of communication. The pragmatics of phraseological units reflects the knowledge about the world of both the politician himself and the audience which he refers to.