By Baron Henri Estramant.
Astana, Kazakhstan: Dariga Nazarbayeva (b. 7 May 1963), the eldest daughter of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has moved into the political spotlight once more after been appointed by her father as “Deputy Prime Minister”.
Up until 2004, she directed Khabar Agency, a major media company which broadcasts daily in Kazakh and Russian and controls Kazakh TV. In 2003 she founded a political party that merged with the country’s dominant party, her father’s Nur Otan in 2006.
During her first foray into politics properly, she served in parliament as deputy speaker. But in 2007, she stepped down. Meanwhile she left parliament to head her father’s charity fund.
In 2012, Nazarbayeva returned to politics, rejoining parliament under Nur Otan and in April 2014 she took up office as deputy speaker of parliament. Moreover she is an accomplished opera singer who has performed at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre.
The 75-year-old President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled over Kazakhstan since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 but he has begun to hint that he is considering standing down after the end of his current term as president in 2020.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair has been advising President Nazarbayev since 2011.
For more information:
President of Kazakhstan: www.akorda.kz/kz
Mission of Kazakhstan to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg (HE Ambassador Almaz Khamzayev): http://kazakhstan-embassy.be/
Embassy of Kazakhstan to The Netherlands and Mission to the OPCW- HE Ambassador Mainyura Murzamadiyeva: www.kazembassy.nl/index.php/en/
