Kazakhstan’s ex-leader denies fleeing abroad amid protests

Nursultan Nazarbayev (Chris Jackson/PA)

Kazakhstan’s influential former leader has released a short video in which he talks about the violent unrest that engulfed the ex-Soviet nation earlier this month, and rejected reports alleging that he fled the country amid tensions with the current president.

It is the first time that Nursultan Nazarbayev – who ran Kazakhstan for 29 years after it gained independence and kept an influential post after stepping down as president in 2019 – has spoken publicly about the protests and the bloodshed they descended into.