The imaginaries of the Eurasian Union: Discursive construction of post-Soviet trans-nationality in Russia and Kazakhstan

Couched in the critical discourse studies perspective and developing the notion of political imaginary, this article explores the imaginaries of the transnational integration project of the Eurasian Union that are produced in elite discourses in its two key states, Russia and Kazakhstan. The corpus used comprises transcripts of the two states’ parliamentary discussions and speeches by presidents Putin and Nazarbaev. The article focuses on meaning construction through the discursive types, strategies, and topoi employed in the discourses of the new Union, and the linguistic forms called upon for their articulation. Two discursive strands narrating the Eurasian Union are singled out – the technocratic and the romantic, the latter being especially potent for identity-building capacity and the production of imaginaries. The article concludes that the object of integration emerging from the two constituent political agents’ collective imagination appears fluid and incoherent both within and between the two states.