This article aims at reconstructing the representations of the 2022 January crisis developed by Kazakhstani political analysts via social media. The research methodology seeks to combine quantitative and qualitative methods by assessing these representations by use of critical discourse analysis of social media posts by Kazakhstani political analysts extracted and processed by the use of API and PolyAnalysts based on marker words. The research significance lies in the unique situation of regime instability potentially providing the expert community with the chance to speak up openly. However, it is concluded that most analysts reproduced the official discourse that is in line with the discourses developed in non-democratic context. Thus, the dominant expert discourse of the January crisis is rather homogenous and relies on the dichotomies of "the old" versus "the new" as well as "the weak" versus "the strong." As a result, the general picture by Kazakhstani political analysts looks more like a political myth about the birth of a "new Kazakhstan" than a reconstruction of the causes, actors and consequences of the January crisis. It implies that the expert community prefers controlled evolution of the state regime rather than grass roots initiated changes.
The authors examine a close connection between the European Union's resilience and identity in academic and contemporary political discourse. In the latter case, the sources of the EU's resilience have not yet been identified, but the Russian factor has come as a variable that determines the connection between resilience and identity in the context of the Russia-Ukraine clash as a conflict of values. As a non-systemic challenge, Russia's special military operation in Ukraine has shifted the focus in the EU's search for the sources of resilience and made it face the problems of self-identity in a changed environment. The article argues that the EU's collective identity may be a factor of its resilience. It concludes that, given the European Union's previous unsuccessful experience of appealing to collective identity in crisis situations, its use in the face of Russia's special military operation will be limited, although it has highlighted the need for strengthening the EU's identity.
The competition for international students is growing among both different countries and universities within one country. Regional universities in Russia, meaning those outside Moscow and Saint Petersburg, try to use internationalization in order to contribute to the development of their regions. However, a high level of academic mobility is usually ensured by comfortable living conditions that both the university and the city the university is situated in provide. The article covers the role of the city as the factor that may contribute to higher education internationalization. The research is based on the perception of certain university cities that international students living there have. Taking into account the ideas of Machlup, Florida, and Castells, the authors consider universities the key actors of university cities development in Siberia. Thus, two Siberian university cities included in the QS Best Student Cities ranking, namely, Tomsk and Novosibirsk, were considered in the research. To evaluate their role in international students' choice for their universities, international students in Tomsk and Novosibirsk universities were interviewed during 2018-2020. To compare the results with the international dimension of higher education internationalization, Russian students studying in France were also interviewed. As a result, the criteria of the university choice were determined that are connected with the university city characteristics. The latter include security considerations, cultural diversity and social environment tolerance, aesthetic attractiveness of the city and its sightseeing opportunities, developed transportation system, high concentration of international students, open and accessible communicative environment. However, the criteria international students chose Siberian university cities for included lower prices for education and lower living costs. The main disadvantage is the lack of comfortable communication zones that do not depend on climate. The priorities of international students in large and small university cities turned out to differ: the latter tend to value the quality of university and the city's historical values as well as personified relations with the locals more. Comparing the opinion of Russian and international students on significant criteria of university cities, the authors found out that international students were less critical to such characteristics of Tomsk and Novosibirsk as security, tolerance and accessibility for disabled people. However, international students were more critical to the number of students in the city. Thus, the creation of comfortable and attractive conditions for international students is the common responsibility of the university, the city and the region.
