Nursultan Nazarbayev

Nursultan Äbishuly Nazarbayev (; born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician who served as the first President of Kazakhstan from 1990 to 2019. Some opposition groups call him an "unofficial leader" and "dictator".

Nazarbayev has been the president since December 1991, when Kazakhstan became independent of the Soviet Union. He has been the country's leader since 1989. This is when he was named First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR. In April 2011, Nazarbayev was re-elected to another five-year term. 

In February 2014, he proposed renaming Kazakhstan to "Kazakh Eli". In 2006 he rewrote the words to "My Kazakhstan" which was then accepted as the country's national anthem. Shortly after his resignation as president the capital city was named after him in his honour.

Notes

 References 

Category:Presidents of Kazakhstan
Category:1940 births
Category:Living people
Category:Recipients of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria