Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

Biography

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was born in Alma-Ata in 1953. He studied at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations from 1970, learning Mandarin, and on graduating in 1975 joined the Soviet foreign ministry, serving first at the embassy in Singapore. After further training at the Beijing Language Institute he spent 1984 to 1991 at the Soviet embassy in Beijing, rising to counsellor.

After independence he joined Kazakhstan's foreign service as deputy foreign minister in 1992 and became foreign minister in October 1994. He was briefly deputy prime minister in 1999 and then prime minister until January 2002, before returning to the foreign ministry and serving as state secretary. He chaired the Senate from 2007 to 2011, was director-general of the United Nations Office at Geneva from 2011 to 2013, and then chaired the Senate again.

When Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned in March 2019, Tokayev became acting president as Senate chairman and won the snap election that June as the ruling party's candidate. In January 2022 fuel-price protests turned into violent unrest; he declared a state of emergency, authorised troops to shoot without warning and called in CSTO forces. Afterwards he removed Nazarbayev's allies, took over the ruling party briefly, and pushed through constitutional changes approved by referendum in June 2022, including a single seven-year presidential term.

He won a snap election in November 2022 as an independent with 81 percent of the vote. Critics note that his government has continued to restrict the opposition and the press, while abroad he has balanced relations with Russia, China and the West.