Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former longtime president of Kazakhstan whose legacy was tarnished by accusations of autocracy and corruption, has made a rare public appearance, visiting several sites in the historic Uzbek city of Bukhara.
Uzbekistan24 television showed Nazarbayev with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev as the pair walked, prayed and posed for cameras together on Friday. Local media reports said they discussed the preservation of cultural heritage and the education of young people. Mirziyoyev returned to Tashkent on Saturday and was in Astana, Kazakhstan on Sunday to attend the opening of the World Nomad Games, an international event celebrating traditional sports in Central Asia.
Nazarbayev’s appearance resembled more of a stroll with an old friend than a formal event. But it was unusual to see the 84-year-old former leader out and about because he has tended to keep a low profile in recent years. The government of his successor, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has distanced itself from parts of Nazarbayev’s legacy, promising to be more responsive to people’s concerns and launching corruption investigations of some of the former leader’s relatives in order to recover state assets.
Nazarbayev had ruled Kazakhstan since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, burnishing his reputation with the help of the young country’s massive oil wealth and skilled outreach to foreign investors and governments.
However, as inequality and economic pressures grew, he resigned in 2019 while retaining some powerful roles in government. He was stripped of those posts as Tokayev grappled with fallout from protests and riots in January 2022 in which Nazarbayev was condemned as an authoritarian holdover. More than 200 people were killed in the violence, which ended after troops from Russia and other regional countries intervened.
