Eurasianism and the Concept of Central Caucaso-Asia

Rethinking Central Eurasia 71
world outlook, the Russian political elite considers this region to be Russia’s
necessary heavy burden. 280
We cannot help but agree with the rational assessment regarding Russia’s
weak economic, military, or even moral opportunities to draw the Central
Asian countries into the Eurasian empire. This is usually not taken into
account by Russian Eurasianists. 281 Essentially, over the past twenty years,
despite all of Moscow’s efforts, 282 the Central Asian countries have learned,
exclusively based on their own interests, to maneuver, to one extent or other,
between different countries that are competing among themselves to realize
their own interests. 283
The Kazakh Eurasianists match their Russian colleagues: they insist that
Kazakhstan is a Eurasian state which has nothing to do with Central Asia
except for bordering on it. 284 It should be said in all justice that a small part of
Kazakhstan (Western Kazakhstan) geographically belongs to Eastern
Europe; 285 however, Kazakhstan’s historical roots are intertwined with the
roots of its Central Asian neighbors. 286 Its regime, which is based on the
incumbent president remaining in office as long as possible, does not differ
much from the regimes of the other Central Asian republics. 287 This means
280 Marlène Laruelle, Russia's Central Asia Policy and the Role of Russian Nationalism, Silk
Road Paper (Washington, D.C./Stockholm: Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk
Road Studies Program, April 2008), .
281 Boris Rumer, “The Search for Stability in Central Asia,” in Boris Rumer, ed.,
Central Asia: A Gathering Storm? (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 2002), pp. 49-50.
282 For example, Stéphane Lefebvre and Roger N. McDermott, “Russia and the
Intelligence Services of Central Asia,” International Journal of Intelligence and
CounterIntelligence, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2008), pp. 251-301.
283 Martin C. Spechler and Dina R. Spechler, “Is Russia Winning in Central Asia?”
CACI Analyst, October 29 (2008), .
284 Dariga Nazarbaeva, “Spetsifika i perspektivy politicheskogo razvitia Kazakhstana”
[Specifics and Prospects of Kazakhstan’s Political Development], Mezhdunarodnyi
institut sovremennoy politiki [International Institute of Contemporary Politics],
December 3 (2003), .
285 For example, Georgy Khachiev, “Central Asia: Portrait Against the Background of
the World Economy,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 2 (38) (2006), p. 117; R.N.
Zhanguzhin, Novye nezavisimye gosudarstva Tsentral’noy Azii, p. 18.
286 For example, S. Frederick Starr, “Rediscovering Central Asia,” Wilson Quarterly,
Summer, 2009, ; Farkhad Tolipov, “Central Asia is a Region of Five Stans,” op. cit. p. 22.
287 Ibid., p. 23.