The role of the Republic of Kazakhstan in geopolitical transformation in the framework of the «Eurasian project»

Abstract

In the process of researching the geopolitical transformation of the post-Soviet space as a «Eurasian project», the author uses the method of comparative analysis of the official foreign policy documents of the founding States of the Eurasian economic union. The author, highlighting Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus as subjects of the «integration core» in the post-Soviet space, reinforces the integration aspirations of these countries with economic data indicating their growing interdependence during the decade preceding the creation of the Union in may 2014.It is shown that the sanctions regime imposed by the Western countries on Russia and their negative impact on the economy of the EEU did not reduce the political will of the leaders of the «Troika» to continue further integration.A detailed research of the policy statements (publications) of the political leaders of the EEU «integration core» allows to determine the special role of Kazakhstan and its President N. Nazarbayev in the implementation of this large-scale geopolitical project.The author in considering programmatic foreign policy documents of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia offers to focus attention on the peculiarities of the positioning of the Eurasian economic union as integration entity. As a result, according to the author, the membership of Belarus in the «Eurasian project» was the result of a hard compromise for the Belarusian people. The Russian example shows that Moscow’s foreign policy vector was initially perceived by the EEU as a global project connecting Europe with the Asia-Pacific region. Now, however, Russia has positioned the EEU as a regional site. The author regards this as a decrease in the status of Eurasian integration and believes that this thesis looks very controversial. Kazakhstan, in turn, sees the «Eurasian project» as an opportunity to join the global economic chains. Thus, Astana attaches to the EEU exclusively global significance.The position of the Kazakh leader in the course of meetings with Western leaders is emphasized. The leader of Kazakhstan traditionally positions the EEU as an adequate and successful economic integration entity with which it is necessary to establish cooperation in all spheres. This allows him to be assigned the status of «advocate» of the «Eurasian project». At the same time, the article notes the support of the Eurasian views of N. Nazarbayev on the ideas of classical Eurasians P. Savitsky, G. Florovsky, N. Trubetskoy, G. Vernadsky, S. Solovyov, L. Gumilev.It is concluded that in the conditions of the remaining anti-Russian sanctions regime Kazakhstan’s participation in the EEU is one of the main factors of the legitimization of integration education at the regional and global levels.