Two relatives of Kazakhstan’s leader-for-life Nursultan Nazarbayev left key posts as President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev continued to consolidate his position following deadly violence that rocked the central Asian nation, Bloomberg reprts.
Tokayev dismissed Nazarbayev’s nephew Samat Abish Satybaldyuly as first deputy head of the National Security Committee, according to a statement Monday on the presidential website. Timur Kulibayev, who is married to Nazarbayev’s middle daughter, said in a statement that he’s resigned as head of the Atameken business association, which unites most of Kazakhstan’s industrial groups.
Authorities said 225 people died, including 19 law-enforcement officers, in this month’s unrest that began as protests over surging fuel prices and quickly spiraled into the most serious challenge to the leadership of the energy- and mineral-rich nation since independence in 1991. Some 9,900 people were detained.
