Specifics of Central Asia Image Perception by Russian Scientific and Expert Community at the Present Stage

Nowadays the Russian government considers Central Asia to be one of the most important direction of the country’s foreign policy. Despite the vast research on international relations in Central Asia, little is known about the Russian government’s perception of the region and the factors that influence this perception. This study focuses on the Russian foreign policy discourse, which can help uncover the agenda of Russian political elite. The paper aims at defining the relationship between the Russian scientific and expert community’s vision of how the country should act in Central Asia and the Russian government’s real political steps toward this region. Using the critical geopolitics theory the author describes the structure of the Russian scientific discourse. Moreover, through both discourse analysis and cognitive mapping the author deconstructs the images of Central Asia produced by the Russian political thinkers and experts. Using of these methods provides the author with the opportunity to reach highly relevant outcomes. At the same time, the building of the research design in line with the constructivist paradigm contributes to the developing of decision-making studies in Russia. The outcomes of this research can be included into a bigger study on the place of Central Asia in the Russian strategy.