Nazarbaev's 20 Years In Power
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Nursultan Nazarbaev, pictured here with his mother, has led Kazakhstan for 20 years. - The future president, born in 1940, was the son of a shepherd.
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Nazarbaev (front left) began his rise through the Communist Party while working in a steel plant in northern Kazakhstan.
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He became the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan in 1989, and was elected president a year later. - Nazarbaev (second from left) was a member of the inner circle of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (right). He was also a critic of former communist boss Dinmuhamed Kunaev (left) because of Kunaev's lengthy stay in office -- something Nazarbaev himself would later be criticized for.
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Nazarbaev and Soviet leader Boris Yeltsin in 1990 - During his first term, Nazarbaev sought to extend the length of the presidential term in office. He later succeeded in eliminating term limits altogether.
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Nazarbaev visits a farmer's fields in 1992. - Despite Nazarbaev's autocratic hold on the presidency, he has remained popular with Kazakhs, many of whom credit him with the country's prosperity, stability, and rising living standards.
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The new Presidential Palace in Astana has become a symbol of Kazakhstan's wealth under Nazarbaev's rule.
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A gold-plated statuette is inscribed with the Nazarbaev family tree. - The president's legacy is preserved at the Museum of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
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And his personality cult is enshrined in a statue -- one of many throughout Kazakhstan --on the shore of lake Issyk-Kul.
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An undated portrait of the president
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Nazarbaev meets with his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon in Astana in 2008. - Nazarbaev's reluctance to cede power is similar to that of other Central Asian leaders, like Emomali Rakhmon, who has also ruled without interruption since before the Soviet collapse.
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Nazarbaev celebrates his reelection in December 2005. - While rights groups decry the Kazakh leader's strangle-hold on the press and the democratic process, there are millions of Kazakhs who support him - as long as economic opportunities remain open to them.
