Kazakhstani Foreign Policy and Strategic Partnership with Russian Federation

This thesis argues that although Kazakhstan gained its Independence in 1991, its foreign policy orientation is persistently in harmony with Russian strategic interests in the region. Even the most popular nationalistic project which is known as the policy of “Kazakhization” didn‟t lead to any conflict between the two states. It seems this harmony manifests a great dependency of Kazakhstan on Russia. This dependency, however, doesn‟t mean that the relations between Kazakhstan and Russian Federation protect only Russian interests. Through being supportive of Russian strategic interests in the region, the Kazakh ruling elite secured its dominant positions in society. Russian-Kazakh relations constitute a strategic partnership. The purpose of this study is to examine the dynamics of the current political cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan on the basis of the following hypotheses:  Kazakhstan‟s foreign policy orientations and its international identity have led to high degree of consistency with and dependency on the Russian strategic interests in the Central Asia.  As the most important nationalistic project „Kazakhization‟ policy of Kazakhstan has been designed in such a way that it maintains a strategic partnership between Russia and Kazakhstan. The thesis argued that Russian strategic interests in the post-communist territories are associated with the superpower status of Russia. Without protecting such strategic interests Russia cannot maintain its superpower position in the international system. Keywords: Kazakhstan, Russia, Kazakhization, Dependency, Strategic partnership