Paper abstract:

Central Asia, as a geopolitical region, lies to the south of the Russian Federation. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Central Asia began the political process of state construction. However, ethnic and border disputes within Central Asia remain the factor influencing regional instability, which may spill over and undermine the national security of Russia and even China. Russia also seeks to reintegrate Central Asia at the security level, including building a vertical alliance structure in the region under the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The academic community has rarely conducted in-depth and detailed exploration of the link between Russia's security interaction with Central Asia and intra-regional disputes. After collating a large number of historical materials in English and Russian, the article proposes an analytical framework of alliance binding based on the cross-border ethnic groups that exist in Central Asia, exploring the relationship between intra-state crises in Central Asia, as well as the cross-border ethnic disputes in the Fergana Valley and Russian security policy, and finds that Russia uses multilateral and bilateral tools to restrain the diplomatic direction of Central Asian countries and buffer the inter-state disputes.