Kazakhstan's President Nazarbayev resigns after 30 years of reign

He has been the only president of independent Kazakhstan after the USSR collapsed in 1990. He was re-elected president 5 times: in 1991, 1999, 2005, 2011 and 2015.

He said, however, that he would retain "major powers to determine the country's external and domestic policies".

His supporters say he preserved inter-ethnic peace and stability during the reform in the 1990s, and credit him for the country's impressive economic growth in first decade of the new millennium.

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