... by his own appointee. This is a direct indication that Tokayev’s call for CSTO was oriented towards holding tight control against his political rivals rather than fighting against terrorist from the West which would threaten the very sovereignty of Kazakhstan.
Why Russia had to act?
In recent years, Central Asia has become a focal point for what many analysists have understood as the impending rise of China in the world order. Often, China’s inroads in Central Asia have put Russia on alert. However, Central Asia has always been seen as the backyard ...
...
]. What is interesting to notice is that, despite the decreasing likelihood of conflict in Central Asia, in the last two years Russia has been modernizing those facilities and equipping them with new Mi-8MTV-5-1 helicopters or drones [
vii
].
While Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are members of all the organizations promoted by Russia, this is not true for the other two Central Asian countries. However, even though Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan do not have any Russian military facility on their soil, they still rely on Russia for their border security because of the Afghan issue. In 2017, following a twelve-year silence,...
... Militants from various terrorist groups in the region cooperate, many of them fighting in Syria and Iraq. But the biggest threat to Central Asia’s security is the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban provide organisational and logistics support to the ... ... with the radical Tajik opposition and Uyghur separatists. Cells of the Islamic State (ISIS) (a terrorist organisation banned in Russia) also operate in the region.
Kazakhstan: Effective Peacekeeping Measures
Alexander Yermakov:
Challenges to Eurasian Security in the Coming Decade
The main ...
The Working Group on the Future of U.S.-Russia Relations’ Report
Central Asia stands out as a comparatively “nontoxic” region where there are limited, but not insignificant, opportunities for U.S.-Russia collaboration both bilaterally and within multilateral frameworks: in the space industry, civil security, job-creation ...
... time, Astana needs the EEU as a counterweight to Beijing’s growing economic clout in the region.
Foreign partners will not bully Kazakhstan because of its EEU membership, lest they lose leverage over Astana and thus strengthen its tilt toward Russia.
The economic crisis-generated troubles in EEU countries are pushing Kazakhstan to search for profit-oriented solutions, i.e. improving competitiveness of its products, as well as closer cooperation with its Central Asian neighbors and other partners in order to boost the economic recovery.
The EEU may further regional cooperation and bring the regional states closer in solving outstanding problems.
The EEU’s failure would discredit any future attempt ...
... other international organizations will not change much due to the accession of certain Central Asian republics to the EAEU. Perhaps, this relationship may become less intense... ... possible too, meaning that such cooperation, on the contrary, may well be enhanced. Kazakhstan's accession to the WTO may contribute to this. It is of primary importance... ... Muratalieva
, expert at the Institute of
Strategic Analysis and Forecasting at the
Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University
Zamira Muratalieva
:
The accession of Kyrgyzstan to the EEU...
... Economic Union, which might entail a risk of putting national sovereignty in jeopardy. Apparently, the internal debates in Kazakhstan have become so fierce that the president had to make a high-profile public statement about the existing legal options for Kazakhstan’s withdrawal from the Eurasian Economic Union
[4]
.
Thus, it is important to recognize that the major developments in the international arena and Russia’s role in them are viewed in Central Asia primarily through the prism of their perceptions of threats to national stability, territorial integrity and national sovereignty. The increased feeling of vulnerability inevitably affects the level of trust between the countries of Central ...
... Central Asian states also face subjective difficulties (see Tables 1, 2). These are largely due to Iran’s international isolation and excessive bureaucracy. Thus, there is a
lack of an established Iranian banking system in Central Asia
(apart from Kazakhstan), which complicates servicing commercial operations.
Table 1.
Exports of Central Asian countries in 2010
Country
Exports volume, billion USD
Share of exports volume, %
EC
31,9
37,7
Russia
13,8
16,4
China
12,4
14,6
Iran
4,0
4,8
Turkey
2,7
3,1
Switzerland
1,7
2,0
USA
1,1
1,3
Source
: R. Mogilevsky. Trends and Patterns of Foreign Trade in Central Asia. University of Central Asia. Institute of Public Administration and Policy. Report ...
... Uzbekistan left CSTO, doesn’t have any plans in joining Customs Union and tries to dominate regional competition. Other countries in the region are ruled out by the the very same parameters but with a different modulus sign. Russia is dealing with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, providing the two latter with aid and debt forgiveness. At the same time Russia is conducting a very equivocal migration policy concerning labor migrants from Central Asia, this and dubious perspectives of joining the Customs Union can play against Russia in the regional “game”, no matter how generous she is to her allies. China ‘s mostly economic relationships with Central Asian states make ...
