Anis H. Bajrektarevic is a Professor and a Chairperson for International Law and Global

INTERESTS & INFLUENCES OF MAJOR EXTERNAL ACTORS IN CENTRAL ASIA
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Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, ethnic
Russians suddenly became a minority due to
nationalistic policies that focus on more native
customs and Turkic languages—effectively re-
placing Russian as the national language even
though Russian remains an official and regional
language in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajik-
istan respectively. Ethnic Russians still repre-
senting a significant number of people, they are
afraid about the growing nationalist move-
ments within the Central Asian countries which
has the potential to replace Russian customs
and Russian cultural symbols or foment anti-
Russian sentiments
When it comes to Russia’s developmental and
economic aid engagement, Russia’s main assis-
tance in the last years included writing off debts
under loans lent by the former Soviet Union in
particular under the framework of the “Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.” 
Furthermore, Russia tried to assist in the areas
of education, improvement of national institu-
tions, administrations, industrial development
and trade facilitation. Moreover, Russia tries to
foster capacity building in the field of environ-
mental protection and is interested in combat-
ing and developing legislation against all
possible threats of terrorist movements. The
five Central Asian countries agree on this initia-
tive as Central Asia is in a rough neighborhood.
There are fears of a spillover because of the
Afghanistan War and when the U.S. ended com-
bat operations in Afghanistan in late December
2014. 
The Central Asia states have already seen an
uptick in activity such as the gun battle in Sep-
tember 2014 between ethnic Turkmen Afghans
and the Taliban. According to Central Asia On-
line, in late August 2014 “[ethnic] Turkmens in
Shah District fought off a Taliban offensive for
three days.”