{"id":40342,"date":"2022-01-06T03:06:43","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T18:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/jan\/05\/old-man-out-kazakhstan-discontent-to-change-leaders-legacy"},"modified":"2022-01-06T03:06:43","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T18:06:43","slug":"poverty-inequality-and-corruption-why-kazakhstans-former-leader-is-no-longer-untouchable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=40342","title":{"rendered":"Poverty, inequality and corruption: why Kazakhstan\u2019s former leader is no longer untouchable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Analysis: Nursultan Nazarbaye, behind-the-scenes powerbroker, thought he found a way to step aside without risking retribution<\/p>\n<p>For years, Nursultan Nazarbayev has been used to performative adoration from the citizens of Kazakhstan. The country\u2019s leader for nearly three decades, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2015\/apr\/24\/kazakhstan-election-avoids-question-of-nazarbayev-successor\">he was showered with praise and adulation<\/a> at showpiece events, and his image smiled down from billboards across the country.<\/p>\n<p>When he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/mar\/19\/kazakhstan-president-nursultan-nazarbayev-steps-down-after-30-years-in-power\">stepped down in 2019,<\/a> he was able to choose his successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and kept significant power as head of the security council and general behind-the-scenes powerbroker. He retained his official title of Elbasy<em>,<\/em> or leader of the nation.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/jan\/05\/old-man-out-kazakhstan-discontent-to-change-leaders-legacy\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Analysis: Nursultan Nazarbaye, behind-the-scenes powerbroker, thought he found a way to step aside without risking retributionFor years, Nursultan Nazarbayev has been used to performative adoration from the citizens of Kazakhstan. The country\u2019s leader &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":246,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[262,2244,61,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kazakhstan","category-nursultan-nazarbayev","category-south-and-central-asia","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40343,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40342\/revisions\/40343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}