Kazakhstan Renames Its Capital Astana

Kazakhstan has renamed its country’s capital Nur Sultan. Nur Sultan will now be known as Astana.
Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has agreed to restore the former name of the country’s capital just three years after he renamed it in honour of his predecessor.
Tokayev’s spokesman, Ruslan Zheliban, said the president agreed to the name change after an initiative by a group of MPs.
It also passed a constitutional amendment to change the name of the capital from Nur-Sultan to Astana. After becoming an independent country in 1991, Kazakhstan moved its capital from Almaty to Astana in 1997. Astana was called Tselinograd in Soviet times.