Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Kazakhstan renamed its capital Astana to Nursultan on 20 March 2019 to honour outgoing President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Nursultan Nazarbayev announced about his resignation on 19 March 2019.

Senate speaker Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was sworn in as president. Dariga Nazarbayeva was elected as the speaker of upper house of the Kazakh parliament.

Astana replaced Almaty as the capital in 1997 and boomed from a minor provincial steppe town into a futuristic city.