Responsibility to Protect, Eurasianism, or Russkiy Mir? : A study examining which of the conceptual framings ‘Responsibility to Protect’, ‘Eurasianism’, and ‘Russkiy Mir’ has been the most prominent in Russia’s legitimation of its intervention in Kazakhstan, January 2022

In January 2022, violent protests and clashes broke out in Kazakhstan and the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation decided to intervene. Although Russia tends to be a strong defender of Westphalian sovereignty and a frequent critic of interventions carried out by the West, this was not the first time Russia intervened in another country. During previous interventions has Russia legitimised its actions with arguments influenced by the conceptual framings ‘Responsibility to Protect’, ‘Eurasianism’, and ‘Russkiy Mir’, three concepts whichhave a central role within Russian foreign policy. The purpose with this thesis is to examine which of these three conceptual framings has been the most prominent in Russia’s discourse and legitimation of the intervention in Kazakhstan, January 2022. With an interpretivist approach, and a constructivist lens, is therefore a discourse analysis conducted to first investigate which arguments Russia has used to legitimise the intervention. Thereafter follows a discussion on which of the conceptual framings was the most prominent within the argumentation. The results show that ‘Eurasianism’ was the most prominent conceptual framing in Russia’s legitimation of the intervention, while ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and ‘Russkiy Mir’ was only prominent to a limited extent.