Colonial Legacies and Global Networks in Central Asia and the Caucasus

This chapter addresses the persistent economic and political effects of the Russian Empire’s establishment of extractive colonial institutions in Central Asia and the Caucasus. At a fundamental level, the infrastructure built by the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century and modified by the Soviet Union in the twentieth century to exploit the region’s resources endure into the present; however, the outflow of wealth and resources no longer moves towards a single imperial core. As this chapter details, new networks of extraction have been built. China has now emerged as the terminus for much of the region’s natural resources, whereas Russia is the leading destination for the region’s labour migrants, thus capturing a significant amount of human capital. Additionally, large amounts of wealth are transferred out of the region into Western financial institutions where it is held, laundered, and sometimes moved on. This chapter argues that the flourishing of these global networks of extraction strengthens the overwhelmingly autocratic regimes of the region and hinders the development of civil society. Finally, the chapter addresses the prospects for halting these extractive processes but ultimately finds that this is unlikely given the interwoven nature of political and economic power across the region.