"The choice of topics, the choice of authors and the entire editorial process was 100 percent in our hands," he said. "The arrangements that they entered into with us didn't touch anything that would have to do with image building or creating a favorable impression."
Starr said that he had been thinking of putting together studies on Kazakhstan when he was approached by Jones, who he had known for years. "The question that was put to me was very simply: we may have some money to support some research on Kazakhstan and are you doing it," he said.
According to the disclosure documents, APCO, on behalf of the Kazakhstan embassy, paid Johns Hopkins $52,300 on January 31 for two of the reports, entitled "Kazakhstan's New Middle Class" and "Parliament and Political Parties in Kazakhstan." Both were published in April. Jones confirmed that the third report, "Kazakhstan in its Neighborhood", published in July, was also underwritten by the government but disclosure on that payment has not yet been filed.
The reports were released in conjunction with think tank discussions -- which were required as part of the payment -- sponsored by the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, according to the disclosures.
All three authors – two of the three of whom have spent extensive time in the country – said that while the institute had chosen the topics they had been free to take the research in any direction they saw fit.
"It's an important topic so I would have written about it anyway," said Richard Weitz, a fellow at the Hudson Institute, who authored the third study.
