Russia Unlikely to Give Up Imperial Ambitions Anytime Soon Because These Do Not Rest on Soviet Nostalgia Alone, Kazakh Analyst Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 23 – Kazakhstan should not expect any rapid change in Russia’s imperial ambitions because they are based “not only on nostalgia for the Soviet Union but also in a desire to preserve the idea of Russia as a power with special rights regarding the territories of its neighbors,” Askar Nursha says.

            The Kazakh political analyst, who is dean of the ALMA University School of Public Policy and Law and author of the 2018 book, Putin’s Russia: Geopolitical Revenge or Aggressive Defense, makes this point in an interview with Altyn-Orda (altyn-orda.kz/rossiya-ne-otkazalas-ot-imperskih-ambitsij-politolog-obyasnil-kakie-riski-eto-sozdayot-dlya-kazahstana/).

            Those who expect Russia to give up these ambitions anytime soon are going to be disappointed because that will take not just the passing of a generation that remembers the USSR but the complete transformation of Russian self-identificaiton as a special state with special rights regarding its neighbors.

            Those neighbors, including Kazakhstan, must recognize this reality even as they are compelled to deal with Russia as a neighbor in pragmatic ways. That may sometimes require unwelcome compromises but these are likely to be necessary to prevent even more tragic consequences.