Nursultan Nazarbayev

Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev ( kk, Нұрсұлтан Әбішұлы Назарбаев, Nūrsūltan Äbişūlı Nazarbaev, ; born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician and military officer who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in office from country’s independence in 1991 until his formal resignation in 2019, and as the Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan from 1991 to 2022. He held the special title as Elbasy (meaning "Leader of the Nation", ) from 2010 to 2022. Nazarbayev was one of the longest-ruling non-royal leaders in the world, having led Kazakhstan for nearly three decades, excluding chairmanship in the Security Council after the end of his presidency. He has often been referred to as a dictator due to usurpation of power and autocratic rule. He was named First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR in 1989 and was elected as the nation's first president shortly before its independence from the Soviet Union.

In 1962, while working as a factory steel worker, Nazarbayev joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) where he was a prominent member of the Komsomol and a full-time worker for the party. From 1984, Nazarbayev was the Prime Minister of the Kazakh SSR. During his tenure, he was appointed as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (QKP), the most powerful position in 1989. In April 1990, Nazarbayev was appointed as Kazakhstan's first president by the Supreme Soviet. From there, he supported Russian President Boris Yeltsin against the attempted coup in August 1991 by the Soviet hardliners. The Soviet Union then fell apart after 1991 Soviet coup d'etat failed, though Nazarbayev went to great lengths to maintain close economic ties with Russia by introducing Kazakhstan into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and eventually the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

Nazarbayev ruled an authoritarian regime in Kazakhstan, as human rights abuses were severe, dissent was suppressed, and elections were not free and fair. In the country's first direct presidential election, held in 1991, he appeared alone on the ballot with no opposing candidates and won 98% of the vote. An April 1995 referendum extended Nazarbayev's term until 2000 and in August of that year, a constitutional referendum was held which allowed for a new draft for the Constitution of Kazakhstan that greatly strengthened presidential powers. In 1999, Nazarbayev was re-elected for a second term and again in 2005 and 2011 after a constitutional amendment had granted him to run as president indefinitely. In 2010, he announced reforms to encourage a multi-party system in an attempt to counter the ruling Nur Otan's one-party control of the lower house Mazhilis from 2007. This led to the reinstatement of various parties in Parliament following the 2012 legislative elections, although having little influence and opposition as the parties supported and voted with the government while Nur Otan still had dominant-party control of the Mazhilis. In 2015, Nazarbayev was re-elected for the last time for a fifth term with almost 98% of the vote while in a middle of an economic crisis, as he ran virtually unopposed. In January 2017, Nazarbayev proposed constitutional reforms that would delegate powers to the Parliament of Kazakhstan. In May 2018, the Parliament approved a constitutional amendment allowing Nazarbayev to lead the Security Council for life.

In March 2019, he resigned from the presidency amid anti-government rallies and was succeeded by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a close ally of Nazarbayev, who overwhelmingly won the following snap presidential elections in June 2019. He was immune from any criminal prosecution until being stripped from privileges following the 2022 constitutional referendum and continued to serve as the chairman of both the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan and Nur Otan until 2021. Nazarbayev is also a member of the Constitutional Council and an honorary member of the Senate of Kazakhstan, and was chairman of the Security Council until his dismissal from that post in response to the 2022 unrest.

Early life and career

Nazarbayev was born in Chemolgan, a rural town near Almaty, when Kazakhstan was one of the republics of the Soviet Union, to parents Ábish Nazarbayev (1903–1971) and Aljan Nazarbayeva (1910–1977). His father Ábish was a poor labourer who worked for a wealthy local family until Soviet rule confiscated the family's farmland in the 1930s during Joseph Stalin's collectivization policy. Following this, his father took the family to the mountains to live out a nomadic existence. His family's religious tradition was Sunni Islam.

Äbish avoided compulsory military service due to a withered arm he had sustained when putting out a fire. At the end of World War II, the family returned to the village of Chemolgan where in 1948, Nazarbayev began attending school and being taught the Russian language; while living with his paternal uncle, as his parents had not owned dwelling in the place for a brief period. Nazarbayev later himself chose to settle in the upper part of Chemolgan where mainly ethnic Russians lived, in order to master Russian while communicating with them. Despite performing well at school, by the time Nazarbayev was in 10th grade, all the classes in the same grade were called off due to the shortage of students and as a result in 1957, he was sent to a boarding school named after Abai Qunanbaiuly in Kaskelen. During that time, Nazarbayev's father, Äbish, wished to create favourable conditions towards his son for studying and living as well as to potentially avoid bad influence from peers by renting himself an apartment for Nazarbayev in the village.

After leaving school, Nazarbayev took up a one-year, government-funded scholarship at the Karaganda Steel Mill in Temirtau. He also spent time training at a steel plant in Dniprodzerzhynsk, and therefore was away from Temirtau when riots broke out there over working conditions. By the age of 20, he was earning a relatively good wage doing "incredibly heavy and dangerous work" in the blast furnace. From there, Nazarbayev married Sara Nazarbayeva on 25 August 1962, who was a dispatcher at the same steel mill that he worked in. Together, both parties would eventually have three daughters: Dariga, Dinara, and Aliya, born in 1963, 1967, and 1980, respectively.

On 15 November 1962, Nazarbayev joined the Communist Party, becoming a prominent member of the Young Communist League ( Komsomol) and full-time worker for the party, while attending the Karagandy Polytechnic Institute. He was appointed secretary of the Communist Party Committee of the Karaganda Metallurgical Kombinat in 1972, and four years later became Second Secretary of the Karaganda Regional Party Committee.

In his role as a bureaucrat, Nazarbayev dealt with legal papers, logistical problems, and industrial disputes, as well as meeting workers to solve individual issues. He later wrote that "the central allocation of capital investment and the distribution of funds" meant that infrastructure was poor, workers were demoralised and overworked, and centrally set targets were unrealistic; he saw the steel plant's problems as a microcosm for the problems for the Soviet Union as a whole.

Rise to power

In 1984, at the age 42, Nazarbayev became the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan (Chairman of the Council of Ministers), the youngest-ever officeholder in the Soviet Union to serve the post, under Dinmukhamed Kunaev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. During that period, the Perestroika policies slowly began to take place under Mikhail Gorbachev while Nazarbayev himself was viewed to be more of experienced policy maker as his views and stances had already been formed during the Khrushchev Thaw and 1965 Soviet economic reform. Kazakhstan at that time was seen as a backwater republic within the Soviet Union with its industry being heavily reliant upon rich raw materials, specifically in mining sectors and was forced upon to import its consumer goods from other Soviet republics. It faced problems especially in countryside with a need state farm repairs, as well as housing for farmers, lack of available preschools for rural children which Nazarbayev during his tenure raised issues in regard to these problems that was reportedly met with disagreements amongst the republic's leadership.

Growing frustrated over the problems within the Kazakh SSR, at the 16th Session of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan held in January 1986, Nazarbayev criticized Askar Kunayev, head of the Academy of Sciences, for not reforming his department. Dinmukhamed, Nazarbayev's boss and Askar's brother, felt deeply angered and betrayed. Kunayev went to Moscow and demanded Nazarbayev's dismissal while Nazarbayev's supporters campaigned for Kunayev's dismissal and Nazarbayev's promotion.

Kunayev was ousted in 1986 and replaced by Gennady Kolbin, an ethnic Russian, who despite his office, had little authority in Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev was named party leader and the top position (First Secretary of the Communist Party) on 22 June 1989, only the second Kazakh (after Kunayev) to hold the post. He was the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 22 February to 24 April 1990.

On 24 April 1990, Nazarbayev was elected as the first President of Kazakhstan by the Supreme Soviet. He supported Russian President Boris Yeltsin against the attempted coup in August 1991 by Soviet hardliners. Nazarbayev was close enough to Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev for Gorbachev to consider him for the post of Vice President of the Soviet Union; however, Nazarbayev turned the offer down. However, on 29 July, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Nazarbayev discussed and decided that once the New Union Treaty was signed, Nazarbayev would replace Valentin Pavlov as Premier of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union disintegrated following the failed coup, though Nazarbayev was highly concerned with maintaining the close economic ties between Kazakhstan and Russia. In the country's first presidential election, held on 1 December, he appeared alone on the ballot and won 95% of the vote. On 21 December, he signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, taking Kazakhstan into the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Presidency (1990–2019)

1991–1999: First term

Nazarbayev renamed the former State Defense Committees as the Ministry of Defense and appointed Sagadat Nurmagambetov as Defense Minister on 7 May 1992.

The Supreme Soviet, under the leadership of Chairman Serikbolsyn Abdilin, began debating over a draft constitution in June 1992. Opposition political parties Azat, Jeltoqsan and the Republican Party, held demonstrations in Alma-Ata from 10 to 17 June 1992 calling for the formation of a coalition government, resignation of Sergey Tereshchenko's government and the Supreme Soviet which, at that time, was composed of former Communist Party legislators who had yet to stand in an election. The Constitution, adopted on 28 January 1993, created a strong executive branch with limited checks on executive power.

On 10 December 1993, the Supreme Soviet voted to dissolve itself and that same day, a presidential decree was signed which set changes in local representative and executive bodies with elections of the mäslihats (local legislatures) taking place every 5 years and äkims (local heads) being appointed by the president. In March 1994, Kazakhstan for the first time since independence, held a legislative election which was boycotted by the Azat and Jeltoqsan parties. From there, the pro-presidential People's Union of Kazakhstan Unity party won a majority of 30 seats with independent candidates who were on presidential-list won 42 seats. The OSCE observers called the elections unfair, reporting an inflated voter turnout. Nevertheless, the new composition of the Parliament was considered to be "professional" with different various political factions that functioned. In May 1994, the Surpeme Council passed a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Sergey Tereshchenko amidst political scandals evolving Tereshchenko and government ministers. Nazarbayev objected to the change, arguing that the Constitution gave the president the right to appoint the PM with already existing parliamentary confirmation regardless of the motion of confidence. However, he eventually backed down, dismissing Tereshchenko's government in October 1994 and appointing ethnic-Kazakh Akezhan Kazhegeldin as the new PM.

In 1994, Nazarbayev suggested relocating the capital city from Almaty to Astana, and the official changeover of the capital happened on 10 December 1997.

In March 1995, the Constitutional Court ruled that 1994 legislative elections were held unconstitutionally and as a result, Nazarbayev dissolved the Supreme Council. From that period, all bills were adopted on the basis of presidential decrees such as outlawing any civic participation in an unregistered and/or illegal public association who would be punished with 15-day jail sentence or fines from 5–10 times the minimum monthly wage in an effort "to fight organized crime." An April 1995 referendum extended Nazarbayev's term, originally set to end in 1996, to until 2000. In August 1995, a referendum was held which allowed for greater presidential powers and established a bicameral Parliament as well. Both the elections for Mazhilis (lower house) and the Senate (upper house) were held in December 1995 which convened in January 1996. Nazarbayev dismissed the accusations from critics of him personally dissolving the legislature by claiming that it was under Constitutional Court's orders, saying "the law is the law, and the President is obliged to abide by the constitution, otherwise, how will we build a rule-of-law state?" and that the cancellation of the 1996 presidential elections was made by the decision of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan arguing that "Western schemes do not work in our Eurasian expanses."

In October 1997, Nazarbayev dismissed Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin from his post, to which according to political experts was seen as a "power grab". In his address, he criticized Kazhegeldin over his record reforms and in his place, Nazarbayev appointed Nurlan Balgimbayev, an oil engineer who prior served as an Oil and Gas Minister.

1999–2006: Second term

On 7 October 1998, a number of amendments were made to the Constitution of Kazakhstan in which the term of office of the president was increased from 5 to 7 years as well as term limits. The changes also removed restriction on the maximum required age of a presidential candidate. The following day on 8 October, Nazarbayev signed decree setting the election date for January 1999. He was reelected for second term by winning 81% of the vote, defeating his main challenger and former Surpeme Council chairman Serikbolsyn Abdildin. Abdildin himself in response refused to acknowledge the official results, insisting that they were falsified.

In February 1999, several pro-presidential parties formed into one party named Otan. At the Founding Congress of the party which was held on 1 March 1999, Nazarbayev was elected as the chairman. From there, he suggested that former PM Sergey Tereshchenko should take over the leading role, noting the constitutional limits on president's affiliation with political parties while Nazarbayev himself remained as ''de-facto'' party leader. In July 1999, Nazarbayev signed decree setting the date for the legislative elections. The Otan, for the first time, participated in the elections, winning 23 seats. In the aftermath on 1 October 1999, Nazarbayev appointed Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as the PM after his predecessor Nurlan Balgimbayev had faced an increasing unpopularity amidst worsening economy and scandal revolving around an arms deal with North Korea.

Nazarbayev appointed Altynbek Sarsenbayev, who at the time served as the Minister of Culture, Information and Concord, the Secretary of the Security Council, replacing Marat Tazhin, on 4 May 2001. Tazhin became the Chairman of the National Security Committee, replacing Alnur Mussayev. Mussayev became the head of the Presidential Security Service.

In January 2002, Prime Minister Kassym-Jomart Tokayev resigned from his post and was subsequently appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and State Secretary. Imangali Tasmagambetov took over Tokayev's role as the new PM which viewed as a response towards a political crisis which occurred following the formation of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan in November 2001 by several prominent Kazakh officials who called for political and democratic reforms. Tasmagambetov's government was short-lived, facing opposition by the Parliament over his proposed policies on land privatisation which led to a motion of no confidence against him. Tasmagambetov resigned in June 2003 and Nazarbayev appointed Daniyal Akhmetov to lead the government citing the reason "to intensify the pace of social and economic development."

2006–2011: Third term

In June 2000, the Constitutional Council announced its resolution which declared that Nazarbayev's second term–was in fact–his first due to the adaptation of the new Kazakh Constitution which took place in 1995 during Nazarbayev's first term. This allowed gave him the opportunity to run for another election as his term was set to end in 2007.

On 4 December 2005, new presidential elections were held where Nazarbayev won by an overwhelming majority of 91.15% (from a total of 6,871,571 eligible participating voters). Nazarbayev was sworn in for another seven-year term on 11 January 2006.

In 2006, the Otan increased its ranks as all pro-presidential parties began merging into one. Nazarbayev supported the move, stating the need for there to be fewer, but stronger parties that "efficiently defend the interests of the population." In December 2006, the Otan renamed itself into Nur Otan and on 4 July 2007, Nazarbayev was re-elected as the party's chairman.

Amidst the political shakeup, Nazarbayev dismissed Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov in January 2007 and appointed Deputy PM Karim Massimov as the biggest opposition movement of his time in power. On 16 December 2011, demonstrations in the oil town of Zhanaozen clashed with police on the country's Independence Day. Fifteen people were shot dead by security forces and almost 100 people were injured. Protests quickly spread to other cities but then died down. The subsequent trial of demonstrators uncovered mass abuse and torture of detainees.

On 24 September 2012, Nazarbayev appointed Serik Akhmetov as the PM, a close-ally of Nazarbayev who served as First Deputy PM under Massimov's cabinet and the Äkim of Karaganda Region. Massimov in turn, became the new head of the Presidential Administration.

In December 2012, Nazarbayev outlined a forward-looking national strategy called the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy.

In 2014, Nazarbayev suggested that Kazakhstan should change its name to "Kazakh Eli" ("Country of the Kazakhs"), for the country to attract better and more foreign investment, since "Kazakhstan" by its name is associated with other "-stan" countries. Nazarbayev noted Mongolia receives more investment than Kazakhstan because it is not a "-stan" country, even though it is in the same neighborhood, and not as stable as Kazakhstan. However, he noted that decision should be decided by the people on whether the country should change its name.

After Kazakhstan faced an economic downturn of which was caused by low oil prices and devaluation of the tenge, Nazarbayev on 2 April 2014 dismissed PM Serik Akhmetov and reappointed Karim Massimov