page_title: Nursultan Nazarbayev
section_title: Post-presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Nursultan Nazarbayev / Post-presidency
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Военный парад на Красной площади в ознаменование 74-й годовщины Победы в Великой Отечественной войне 1941–1945 годов
context_page_description: Nursultan Äbishuly Nazarbayev is a Kazakh politician currently serving as the Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan who previously served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in office from 24 April 1990 until his formal resignation on 19 March 2019. He is one of the longest-ruling non-royal leaders in the world, having ruled Kazakhstan for nearly three decades. He was named First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR in 1989 and was elected as the nation's first president following its independence from the Soviet Union. He holds the title "Leader of the Nation". In April 2015, Nazarbayev was re-elected with almost 98% of the vote, as he ran virtually unopposed.
  Nazarbayev has been accused of human rights abuses by several human rights organisations and suppressed dissent and presided over an authoritarian regime. No election held in Kazakhstan since independence has been judged to be free or fair by the West. In 2010, he announced reforms to encourage a multi-party system. In January 2017, Nazarbayev proposed constitutional reforms that would delegate powers to the Parliament of Kazakhstan.
context_section_description: According to The Economist, despite his resignation, he is still behind the leadership of the country. His resignation is considered by The Moscow Times to be an attempt to turn him into a Lee Kuan Yew type of public figure. In the month since his resignation, he had met with South Korean President Moon Jae In and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during their visit to Kazakhstan. Notably, their meetings with Nazarbayev took place separately from their meetings with President Tokayev, who is the de jure head of state. Two days after leaving office, he attended the Nauryz celebrations where he was greeted by the civilian population. In regard to accommodations as the first president, it is known that his personal office (now known as Kokorda) has been moved to a different location in the capital from the presidential palace. It was also reported in late April 2019 that Nazarbayev also maintains a private jet for official and private visits.
  He has embarked on two foreign visits since leaving office, to Beijing and Moscow. The former visit took place during the second Belt and Road Forum while the latter took place during the 2019 Moscow Victory Day Parade. In late-May, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced the naming of Nazarbayev as the honorary President of the Turkic Council. On 7 September, he visited Moscow once again to attend the Moscow City Day celebrations on the VDNKh and to open his pavilion at the trade show. During a visit to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, he told the hosting President Ilham Aliyev that his father, former President Heydar Aliyev, would be "very delighted" with the development of the capital. In late October, he attended the Enthronement of Japanese emperor Naruhito as the representative of Kazakhstan. During this visit, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which he congratulated him on his election victory and was invited by Zelensky to visit Kiev. Nazarbayev met with Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal during his visit to Kazakhstan for a charity tennis match. During his meeting with Nadal, he personally called former Spanish King Juan Carlos I. In October 2019, it was announced that all potential ministerial candidates needed the approval of Nazarbayev before being appointed by Tokayev, with the exception of Minister of Defence, Interior Minister and Foreign Minister.
  On 29 November 2019, Nursultan Nazarbayev was named the Honorary Chair of Central Asian Consultative Meeting. It was announced at the second Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
caption: Nazarbayev (third from the left) with Vladimir Putin at the 2019 Moscow Victory Day Parade
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