Tokayev’s spokesman, Ruslan Zeliban, said the president agreed to the name change at the initiative of a group of lawmakers. One of Tokayev’s first moves after taking office in 2019 following the resignation of President Nursultan Nazarbayev was to call for Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, to be named Nur-Sultan. Nazarbayev, who led the country for three decades under the Soviet Union and after independence in 1991, moved the capital from Almaty to Astana in 1997. The move was widely contested because of the city’s relative isolation in the northern steppes and notorious cold winters where temperatures drop as low as -51C (-60F). He turned the city into a showcase of glittering architecture, including an observation tower where visitors can get their hands on a print of Nazarbayev. After his resignation, Nazarbayev retained enormous influence as head of the ruling party and the county security council. But Tokayev removed him from those posts after deadly unrest in January stemmed in part from resentment over Nazarbayev’s continued hold on power. In June, Kazakhs voted overwhelmingly in favor of constitutional changes in a referendum after unrest ended Nazarbayev’s three-decade rule in central Asia’s richest country. The bloodshed in January, which arose out of peaceful protests over a spike in auto fuel prices, left more than 230 dead and prompted authorities to call in troops from a Russian-led security bloc. The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
