By Vishwesh Sundar, University of Leiden
Salem from Kazakhstan! I am Vishwesh Sundar, currently a lecturer of International Relations at Leiden University in the Netherlands. I had the opportunity to travel on secondment to Nazarbayev University (NU) in Astana, Kazakhstan, as part of the MARS staff exchange program. During July and August 2025, I conducted fieldwork examining the effect of sanctions on Russia on remittance flows to Central Asia. I was particularly interested in studying how Central Asian countries navigate the double-edged sword situation – on the one hand, being reliant on Russia for remittances, which is a lifeline in these countries, and on the other hand, pressured to enforce sanctions on Russia that adversely impact remittance flows, failing which they would be threatened with secondary sanctions.
Personally, I felt my secondment had already begun in June, as I had to complete many administrative procedures and had already tried to establish professional connections in Kazakhstan in preparation for my secondment. For example, I had to get my ethics review and data protection forms approved since I was conducting interviews, and make arrangements for my insurance, travel and stay in Astana. Moreover, since it was the first time that I undertook fieldwork, that too in a region that I was initially not familiar with, there was a lot of self-learning involved. Nevertheless, I chose to go outside my comfort zone and research my topic in the context of Central Asia, given the region’s theoretical and practical relevance. Countries such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan have consistently ranked among the world’s most remittance-dependent economies in the world, and have experienced disruptions in their migration and remittance patterns following the sanctions imposed on Russia in 2022. It would not be wrong to claim that when ‘Russia sneezes, Central Asia catches a cold’!
I believe the best way to illustrate my experience during the secondment is by describing a typical day over the two months. Every morning, despite the thick curtains in my University housing, I was woken up early because of the piercing sunrays (sunrise can be as early as 4:30 am in the summer months in Astana!). I would then either do some background readings or conduct interviews. I was primarily interested in studying the disruptions (or not) to the existing channels of remittances in the Russia-Central Asia migration corridors, and possible alternative formal and informal remittance channels that may have developed following the imposition of sanctions on Russia in 2022. In July, I scheduled a few interviews with academics and policymakers in Kazakhstan, and in August, I interviewed a few Russian migrants, primarily in Kazakhstan, with the help of my Research Assistant Aida Yessimova. In between, I would dedicate a few days to pen down some of the main arguments of my research paper. I would end the day by playing cricket with fellow students or by taking a stroll across the campus or the city.
There was no shortage of workspaces at the host institution, Nazarbayev University, also considering most of the staff and students were on summer vacation during most of my secondment period. NU has a new (the University just celebrated its 15th anniversary this year!) and sprawling campus with many student amenities, which sometimes felt like living in a mini city. It took me a few weeks to get acquainted with the large campus, but it helped me hit the 10k steps a day mark. Being a vegetarian, the only difficulty I faced during the secondment was finding eateries with veg options. Upon arriving, I learnt of the popular proverb that “the only creatures that eat more meat than Kazakhs are wolves”, but I soon learnt to adapt and cooked food myself. However, the temperate weather and clear blue skies, which are a rarity in the Netherlands, compensated for this minor discomfort.
Towards the end of August, I had the opportunity to present the initial findings of my research during the PSIR (Political Science and International Relations) Faculty Lecture Series, following which I received some valuable feedback from colleagues. During the lecture, I shared a few key takeaways from the interviews with the migrants, which are the following. They mentioned that while sanctions had generally disrupted their preferred remittance channels, they added that there are ‘always alternatives’ that emerge, which they learn about from their networks or Telegram channels. While these new channels are less convenient or slower than the conventional ones, the migrants have adapted to the ‘new normal’. There has also been a recent surge in the use of Cryptocurrency as a remittance channel, especially among the younger age groups. The consensus among the respondents suggests that while the sanctions imposed on Russia since 2022 have been the harshest in history, the effectiveness of the sanctions might be waning over time.
There is a big list of people to thank for making my secondment a success, including all the interviewees who took the time to respond to my questions. I would especially like to thank Dr. Crystal Ennis and Dr. Katharina Natter from Leiden University for selecting my research proposal for this grant, Dr. Caress Schenk and Aleksandr Motin at Nazarbayev University, and Chekhros Kilichova at Lund University, who made the onboarding process and my stay in Kazakhstan comfortable, and finally, Aida Yessimova for her research assistance.
