Fallen idol? Speculation over silence of the nation's founding father

The question was being asked with increasing urgency last week: where is Nursultan Nazarbayev ?

- Shaun Walker

Kazakhstan’s leader from 1991 until 2019, Nazarbayev has long been the arbiter of all business and political decisions in the central Asian nation, and the purveyor of an all-encompassing personality cult. In 2019, he handpicked a successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, while retaining power behind the scenes.

But after the worst unrest since independence broke out earlier this month, Nazarbayev was absent from public view. Official figures say 225 people died in the unrest and crackdown. Meanwhile, the man who personified Kazakhstan for so long seemed to have simply disappeared.

Some said he was hiding out on the shores of Lake Geneva or in Dubai. According to a number of sources, he remains ed in Kazakhstan, probably in the capital, Nur-Sultan, the city that bears his name.

“My best information is that Nazarbayev is alive, and furious negotiations are underway with Tokayev about the redistribution of assets,” a well-connected former western government official said last weekend.