This article addresses the problem of persuasion in the discourse of Russian authorities since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The study of the corpus, composed of interviews and press conferences, is based on the cross-disciplinary approaches of discourse analysis and argumentative rhetoric. The analysis focuses jointly on the ideological concepts used in discourse to legitimize aggression, and on the manipulative procedures used in the construction of argumentative schemes. On the one hand, this makes it possible to identify flaws in the argumentation and the linguistic and rhetorical means used to conceal them. On the other hand, the article questions the persuasive effectiveness of the Kremlin's discourse in a particular communicative situation.