dpa
Moscow
The capital city of Kazakhstan will now be called Astana again, after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Saturday signed into law an amendment agreed on by the country’s parliament a day earlier. Three years ago, the capital city was renamed Nur-Sultan in honour of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stepped down in March 2019 after about thirty years in power.
The Kazakh parliament had also unanimously approved a constitutional amendment constricting future presidents to single seven-year terms.
It is expected that the 69-year-old Tokayev will run for president after the constitutional amendment, because the new law will not apply retrospectively, but only takes force with the next election. A neighbour to China with 18.5 million inhabitants, Kazakhstan was shaken by bloody protests at the start of this year. In the wake of the unrest, Nazarbayev and his family were ousted from their remaining positions of power. Until then, Nazarbayev had been considered the most powerful man in the country.