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PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • All Members
      • Core Members
      • Collegium Members
      • Associate Members
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
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RECOMMENDED
  • The Russia Program at GW (IERES)

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  • The Evolving Concerns of Russians after the Invasion | New Voices on Eurasia with Sasha de Vogel (March 9)

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  • PONARS Eurasia Spring Policy Conference (March 3)

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  • Ukrainathon 2023 (Feb. 24-25)

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  • How Putin has shrugged off unprecedented economic sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine – for now

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RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • The Putin-Xi Summit: What's New In Their Joint Communique ? February 23, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman speaks with Russian China experts Vita Spivak and Alexander Gabuev about the February meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and what it may tell us about where the Russian-Chinese relationship is headed.
  • Exploring the Russian Courts' Ruling to Liquidate the Memorial Society January 28, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with scholars Kelly Smith and Benjamin Nathans about the history, achievements, and impending shutdown of the Memorial Society, Russia's oldest and most venerable civic organization, and what its imminent liquidation portends for the Russian civil society.
  • Russia's 2021 census and the Kremlin's nationalities policy [Lipman Series 2021] December 9, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with social scientist Andrey Shcherbak about the quality of the data collected in the recent population census and the goals of Vladimir Putin's government's nationalities policy
  • Active citizens of any kind are under threat [Lipman Series 2021] November 5, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Verkhovsky about the Kremlin's ever expanding toolkit against political and civic activists, journalists, and other dissidents.
  • Russia's Legislative Elections followup [Lipman Series 2021] October 4, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Tanya Lokot and Nikolay Petrov about the results of Russia’s legislative elections and about what comes next.
  • Why Is the Kremlin Nervous? [Lipman Series 2021] September 14, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about Russia’s September 17-19 legislative elections, repressive measures against electoral challengers, and whether to expect anything other than preordained results.
  • Vaccine Hesitancy in Russia, France, and the United States [Lipman Series 2021] August 31, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov, Naira Davlashyan, and Peter Slevin about why COVID-19 vaccination rates are still so low across the globe, comparing vaccine hesitant constituencies across Russia, France, and the United States.  
  • Is Russia Becoming More Soviet? [Lipman Series 2021] July 26, 2021
      In a new PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Maxim Trudolyubov about the current tightening of the Russian political sphere, asking whether or not it’s helpful to draw comparisons to the late Soviet period.
  • The Evolution of Russia's Political Regime [Lipman Series 2021] June 21, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Grigory Golosov and Henry Hale about the evolution of Russia's political regime, and what to expect in the lead-up to September's Duma elections.
  • Volodymyr Zelensky: Year Two [Lipman Series 2021] May 24, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about Ukrainian President Zelensky's second year in office, and how he has handled the political turbulence of the past year.
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Relevant Past PONARS Eurasia Policy Memos on Kazakhstan

  • January 19, 2022
  • Azamat Junisbai, Barbara Junisbai, Marlene Laruelle, Lawrence Markowitz, Mariya Omelicheva and Dylan Royce

Central Asian Responses to COVID-19: Regime Legitimacy and [De]Securitization of the Health Crisis

By Mariya Omelicheva and Lawrence P. Markowitz | March 1, 2021

Despite a history of using discourses of danger to define other transnational challenges (e.g., Islamic radicalism), Central Asia’s governments have not framed the coronavirus pandemic in security terms. Using examples of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, we explain this ambivalence by examining legitimization practices that have constrained and shaped the Central Asian regimes’ narratives and responses to COVID-19. Dual claims to presidential authority in Kazakhstan, a leadership vacuum and elite division in Kyrgyzstan, and a turn toward technocratic governance in Uzbekistan have led to an inconsistent and limited securitization of the pandemic. […]

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Authoritarian Learning: Making Sense of Kazakhstan’s Political Transition

By Azamat Junisbai | July 9, 2020

On March 19, 2019, President Nursultan Nazarbayev shocked the country he has dominated since before the collapse of the Soviet Union by announcing that he had reached a “difficult” decision and was going to step down from the presidency. Yet, as he continued reading his statement on television, it became clear that this was an unusual transition. Nazarbayev reminded viewers of his special status as First President–Leader of the Nation (Elbasy) and stated that he would retain his posts as Head of the Security Council, Chair of the ruling Nur-Otan political party, and member of the Constitutional Council. He stated that his goal for the future was to empower a new generation of leaders who would continue his policies. Lastly, Nazarbayev announced that, in accordance with Kazakhstan’s constitution, Chair of the Senate Kassym-Jomart Tokayev would succeed him as interim president until elections were held. Tokayev’s first address as interim president a day later on March 20 was a vow of policy continuity. He also lavished extravagant praise on his appointer and called for renaming the capital Astana and central streets in all of Kazakhstan’s large cities after the Elbasy. […]

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Love with Nuances: Kazakhstani Views on Russia

By Marlene Laruelle and Dylan Royce | June 29, 2020

Kazakhstan is known as one of the countries most loyal to Russia—even more so, in many respects, than Belarus. Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana) indulges Moscow less often than Minsk in rigorous bargaining games. Still, since the Ukraine crisis and the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Kazakhstan has occasionally distanced itself from Russia, at least declaratively. The Kazakhstani government, more generally, maintains some measure of its longstanding, multivector foreign policy: open to all, but without denying Russia’s status as primus inter pares. But what about Kazakhstani public opinion? What do Kazakhstanis think of their northern neighbor, and why? […]

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Institutional Trust in Kazakhstan versus Kyrgyzstan: How Divergent Trajectories Matter

By Azamat Junisbai and Barbara Junisbai | February 7, 2019

For the new countries that emerged after the collapse of the USSR, few tasks have been more important, or challenging, than building institutions of government that enjoy public trust. While the frenzy of institution-building in the newly independent states breathed new life into the study of institutional trust, there has been little published research focused on Central Asia. This memo aims to advance our understanding of trust in government in two Central Asian societies with divergent economic and political trajectories. Resource-poor Kyrgyzstan has seen little economic growth, has gone through two violent regime changes, and is the first and only Central Asian country to hold an election judged as largely free and fair by international observers. Things could hardly be more different in Kazakhstan, with its abundant natural resource wealth and a president who has been in power since the fall of the Soviet Union. […]

Read More | PDF


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Why Still Pro-Russia? Making Sense of Hungary’s and Serbia’s Pro-Russia Stance

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The Desire to Possess: Russia’s War for Territory

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