Disgraced ’Leader of the Nation’: the Downfall of Nursultan Nazarbayev

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first president of independent Kazakhstan, was the most powerful person in the country. For decades, his family controlled the most lucrative sectors of the country's economy. But in 2019, he suddenly stepped down. He picked his successor and hoped that he would be able to maintain his influence through various lifelong titles including 'Elbasy' (the Leader of the Nation). But instead, his power gradually diminished until he was stripped of all of those titles becoming almost nothing more than the country’s richest pensioner.

What caused Nazarbayev’s downfall and why wasn’t he able to maintain his influence? Let’s talk about it in this episode.

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