With Russia bogged down in its war in Ukraine, speculation has increased that its influence may be waning in Kazakhstan and other former Soviet states in Central Asia. Russia retains a significant cultural, political, and security role in Kazakhstan, while the country’s other great power neighbor, China, has taken an increasingly large economic role. Kazakhstan has ably managed potential ethnic tensions since the fall of the Soviet Union by maintaining a multiethnic national identity and protecting the rights of its sizable Russian minority. How can the United States best engage with Kazakhstan without upsetting these delicate balances? A new QI brief from research fellow Suzanne Loftus addresses this question.

To discuss these issues and the recommendations in her brief, Suzanne will be joined by Nargis Kassenova, Senior Fellow and Director of the Program on Central Asia at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University; and Nurseit Niyazbekov, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan.