Nursultan Nazarbayev
President

(pronounced "nor-sool-TAN nah-zahr-BAI-eff")

"The path from totalitarianism to democracy lies through enlightened authoritarianism."

The Republic of Kazakhstan is located in the heart of the Eurasian landmass. Covering 2.7 million sq km (1.05 million sq mi), the land area is 12% of the former Soviet Union. Kazakhstan is the second largest of the former Soviet republics, after the Russian Federation. It is about four times the size of Texas.

Kazakhstan is one of the most populous of the Central Asian states, with an estimated population of 16,741,519 as of July 2002. In 1995, the Kazakh legislature endorsed moving the nation's administrative capital to a windswept small town in northern Kazakhstan, renamed Astana, in a bid to strengthen control over areas heavily populated by ethnic Russians. According to the 1999 census, ethnic Russians constitute 30% of the population and Kazakhs (Qazaks)53.4%. There are more than 100 other small ethnic communities...