ASSESSMENTS

Central Asia Feels the Reverberations of the Ukraine Crisis

Sep 10, 2014 | 08:59 GMT

Central Asia Feels the Reverberations of the Ukraine Crisis
Heads of state from the former Soviet Union gather at the Kremlin in 2011 for negotiations between members of the Customs Union, the Eurasian Economic Community and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

(MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images)

Summary

As the competition between Russia and the West continues to affect Ukraine and Moldova, the Central Asian nations have also started to feel its significant, though nuanced, effects. Central Asia is outside of the predominant theater for Russian-Western tensions (Eastern Europe and the Caucasus), but the standoff is still influencing the region. The relationships between the Central Asian states and Russia, however, vary greatly, and each state will continue to react differently, deepening existing foreign policy divisions.

While Russia competes with Western nations for influence in Ukraine and the European periphery, the geographically distant Central Asian states are changing their approaches toward Moscow....

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