Nazarbayev, Nursultan Abishevich (1940– )

Kazakh politician, president of Kazakhstan from 1990. Having gained a reputation as a ‘reform communist’ in the 1980s, since Kazakhstan's independence in 1991 he encouraged the development of a free-market economy and Western investment in Kazakhstan's oilfields. He has taken a firm line against Islamic terrorism and religious extremism and has not allowed political liberalization. There have been clampdowns on press freedom and on political dissent, and Nazarbayev has used referenda to extend his presidential term. In May 2007 Kazakhstan's parliament approved a constitutional amendment allowing him to stand for re-elections as many times as he wishes. There has been stability in a volatile region, but also concerns over corruption in the government, with allegations that Kazakh officials received large bribes from US law firms.

In 1994 Nazarbayev agreed an economic union with neighbouring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. He has pursued a balanced foreign policy, which has been pro-Western while also signing a treaty of friendship with Russia in 1992, guaranteeing Kazakhstan's borders and agreeing on the removal of all nuclear weapons from the republic.

Born in Chemolgan, Nazarbayev joined the Communist Party in 1962; he studied metallurgy and at the Higher Party School in Moscow. In the Soviet period he was prime minister of the Kazakh republic 1984–89 and leader of the Kazakh Communist Party 1989–91, which established itself as the independent Socialist Party of Kazakhstan in September 1991.