The former head of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev, has been deprived of lifelong privileges

The head of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, signed a decree according to which the law “About the first president of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Elbasy” is repealed. The document assumed lifetime privileges for ex-head of the country Nursultan Nazarbayev and his family: in particular, maintenance at the expense of the state budget and provision of security.

Nazarbayev also lost the right to inviolability of his real estate, and his relatives – the right to personal inviolability.

The first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, resigned in March 2019. He led the country for almost 28 years. At the same time, the resignation was essentially formal: Nazarbayev retained the posts of chairman of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan and head of the Security Council, and then continued to exert significant influence on state policy.

In January 2022, mass protests in major cities of Kazakhstan against Nazarbayev’s rule turned into riots and clashes between demonstrators and the police and the army. After that, the ex-president lost his position. The country’s parliament approved the changes that canceled Nazarbayev’s lifetime chairmanship of the Security Council and the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, as well as the need to coordinate initiatives in foreign and domestic policy with him. In addition, the new president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, to whom power passed from Nazarbayev, limited the term of presidential powers to seven years without the right to re-election and appointed early presidential elections for November 2022. Tokaev won them by a large margin.

• In the last hour, the authorities of Kazakhstan are debunking the personality cult of Nursultan Nazarbayev. Mentions of him as the “leader of the nation” (Elbasy) were excluded from the country’s Constitution, the republican capital was renamed from Nur-Sultan back to Astana, the First President’s Day was excluded from public holidays. In addition, the court sentenced Nazarbayev’s nephew Kairat Satybaldiuly to six years in prison in the case of large-scale embezzlement of state funds, and the eldest daughter of former president Darigh Nazarbayev resigned as a deputy of the lower house of parliament.