Kazakh president agrees to change capital’s name back to Astana

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has agreed to restore the former name of the country’s capital, three years after he renamed it in honour of his predecessor, his spokesperson said.

One of Mr Tokayev’s first moves on taking office in 2019 after Nursultan Nazarbayev stepped down was to call for Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, to be dubbed Nur-Sultan instead.

Mr Nazarbayev, who led the country for three decades under the Soviet Union and after it gained independence in 1991, relocated the capital from Almaty to Astana in 1997.

The move was widely questioned because of the city’s relative isolation in the northern steppes and notoriously frigid winters in which temperatures plunge as low as minus 50C.

He made the city into a showplace of gaudy architecture, including an observation tower where visitors can place their hands in a print of Mr Nazarbayev’s.

After he stepped down, Mr Nazarbayev retained enormous influence as head of the county’s ruling party and security council, but Mr Tokayev removed him from those posts after deadly unrest in January that hinged partly on dissatisfaction with the power Mr Nazarbayev still wielded.

Mr Tokayev’s spokesman, Ruslan Zheliban, said the president agreed to the name change after an initiative by a group of parliament members.