Kazakhstan's President renames his capital as 'Astana'

Category : International Published on: September 21 2022

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Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a decree, officially changing the name of the capital Nur Sultan to Astana.
The capital's name was changed to Nur-Sultan in March 2019, in honor of outgoing President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Astana became the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997 when Nazarbayev, who led the country for three decades under the Soviet Union and after it gained independence in 1991, moved it there from Almaty.
After he stepped down in 2019, his successor, Tokayev, moved to name it Nur-Sultan — in honor of Nazarbayev, who retained enormous influence as head of the county's ruling party and Security Council.