Powerful Kazakhstan ex-leader Nursultan Nazarbayev is main target of protesters’ anger
- Kazakhstan has been rocked by violent and deadly protests in recent days
- Ex-president still wields considerable power after stepping down in 2019
Nursultan Nazarbayev, stripped on Wednesday of his role as head of Kazakhstan’s powerful Security Council amid violent street protests, has dominated his vast oil-producing Central Asian nation since before the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Many protesters have shouted “Old Man Out!” in reference to the 81-year-old former president during days of unrest triggered by a fuel price rise that on Wednesday brought the Cabinet’s resignation.
Despite quitting the presidency in 2019 and bequeathing power to a hand-picked successor, Nazarbayev remained the real power in the land. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced in a televised address on Wednesday that he would now head the State Security Committee but made no mention of Nazarbayev, who has not been seen or heard from for days.
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Kazakhstan government resigns amid massive protests over high fuel prices
Tokayev also removed Nazarbayev’s nephew from a post as number two at the State Security Committee, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
Nazarbayev ruled Kazakhstan with an iron hand for nearly three decades, attracting hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment in the energy and metal sectors and skilfully balancing ties with powerful neighbours Russia and China.
But the former steelworker brooked no dissent and drew criticism from Western countries and human rights groups who accused him of rolling back post-Soviet democratic freedoms. His family is believed to control much of the Kazakh economy.
Born in 1940, Nazarbayev rose through the ranks of the Communist Party, becoming a Politburo member in 1990 just before the Soviet Union collapsed.