The Transformation of Soviet Republic Borders to International Borders: Competing Concepts of the Kazakhstan-Russia Border

The regime of Nursultan Nazarbayev has pursued two priorities in regard to its border regime since Kazakhstan became independent at the end of 1991: on the one hand maintaining an open border regime in respect to trade and other forms of economic activity, and on the other hand keeping control over the border in order to meet a variety of perceived security threats. The evident tensions between these two priorities have led to a shifting and unpredictable border regime, which is also conditioned by actions on the part of Kazakhstan’s neighbors. The article explores the two competing discourses of the border through examination of the 1992 Law on the Border and the documents of the Customs Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the early 2000s. The competing discourses are historically conditioned and are derived from three main considerations: the conviction that Kazakhstan could only survive and prosper if it maintained a continuation of the close economic relations of the Soviet Union; the function of the border in the nation-state building project; and perceived security threats which increased in influence at the end of the 1990s and in the early 2000s.