Public Procurement and Kleptocracy at the Time of Covid: Sputnik-V in Kazakhstan

• In Event: Authoritarian Politics in Central Asia: Adaptations and Innovations

Abstract

Drawing on research triangulating local sources, interviews with key stakeholders, the paper focuses on the case of Sputnik-V co-production in Kazakhstan. It is analyzed as a mechanism of authoritarian consolidation pursued through pandemic politics. The international dimension of the Covid response framed by the regime in Astana was systematically guided by Kazakhstan’s well-established logics of kleptocratic governance.

Author

• Luca Anceschi, U of Glasgow (UK)