Rhetorical situation

Speaker

The speaker of the speech “This is an illegal war” is Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian and American actor, former professional bodybuilder, and politician. In his speech, Schwarzenegger refers to his personal experience with Russians, namely his lengthy friendship with Yury Petrovich Vlasov: 

In 1961, when I was 14 years old, I had the chance to attend the World Weightlifting Championships in Vienna. […] Somehow, a friend of mine got me backstage. All of a sudden a 14-year-old boy was standing in front of the strongest man in the world. 

Schwarzenegger also mentions how his career in the film industry allowed him to meet Yury again: “Years later, I was in Moscow to film Red Heat, the first American movie allowed to film in Red Square. Yury and I spent the whole day together”. He uses these personal stories to show that he loves and respects the people of Russia, which is why he finds it important to share his message about the war in Ukraine with them. 

Lastly, Schwarzenegger mentions his father and his experience in the Second World War: “When my father arrived in Leningrad, he was all pumped up on the lies of his government. When he left Leningrad, he was broken physically and mentally”. Schwarzenegger uses the story of his father’s experience in the war as a cauti...