Russia's attitudes toward millions of Russophones in the Newly Independent states (NIS) have been noted, since 1991, for their ambivalence. The concept of a "Russian diaspora" has been pursued as an ethno-selective ideological project. On the practical-political level, however, Russian authorities were obliged to rest upon a loose notion of "compatriots." In this article, "virtual diasporization" is juxtaposed with Russophones' identities and behavior to substantiate the point that these populations do not possess the "diasporic" features ascribed to them. Moreover, official Russian policies have failed to evoke any "diasporic" sentiment within Russophones toward their putative "homeland." I argue that, to be more realistic and responsive, these policies should be more sensitive to commonalities and zones of common interest between Russophones and the titular populations of the NIS.

In this paper we explore, through the narratives and perspectives of "old residents" in post-Soviet Bishkek, the dominant discourse which has emerged towards rural migrants arriving to the city from other areas of Kyrgyzstan from the late Soviet period onwards. We investigate the existence of a primarily "antagonistic" discourse in relation to the migrants and analyze this in detail to understand how it illuminates wider concerns amongst residents about what is occurring in their city, and about wider processes of social change in Kyrgyzstan. The paper provides a revealing insight into the processes of urban change in post-Soviet Central Asia, and demonstrates the ways in which confrontation with the everyday harsh realities of post-Soviet transformation can lead to the negative "othering" of one group of urban residents by another. We also demonstrate how the "old residents'" perceptions of migrants reveal important insights into emerging notions and constructions of identity in the post-Soviet period, related in this case to understandings of "North" and "South' 1 and related concepts of what is "urban" and what is "Kyrgyz".

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