Kazakhstan's powerful Deputy Prime Minister Imanghali Tasmaghambetov has been dismissed from his post.
Kazakhstan's presidential press service said on February 3 that Tasmaghambetov was removed by a presidential decree because he is being transferred to another, unspecified position.
Tasmaghambetov, 60, has been considered a possible successor to 76-year-old Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who has been running the Central Asian republic since 1989.
In different periods, Tasmaghambetov served as defense minister, education and culture minister, chief of the presidential administration, the mayor of Almaty, the mayor of Astana, and the governor of the oil-rich region of Atyrau.
