Eurasianist Rhetoric in Russia and Kazakhstan. Negotiating Hegemony through different Visions of Society.

This study fathoms the question what Eurasianist discourse in Russia and Kazakhstan reveals about contemporary hierarchy dynamics between Russia and Central Asia.

The Russo-Kazakh Eurasianist discourse offers an instructive example of these dynamics. Both countries’ foreign policy rhetoric formulates different visions of an Eurasianist society that are insightful in understanding their relative positioning towards each other. It is suggested that Russia’s invocation of a civilizational gemeinschaft-type society built on a common culture and identity serves to legitimize its hegemonic claims towards Central Asia. The functional gesellschaft vision which Kazakhstan conveys through its pragmatic Eurasianist rhetoric constitutes in turn a resistance to these hegemonic claims by highlighting sovereign equality and invoking counter-hegemonic narratives.