Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

His father, Kemel Tokayev (1923–1986), was a World War II veteran and a well-known writer who is considered to be the founder of Kazakh detective fiction.

His mother, Turar Shabarbayeva (1931–2000), worked at the Alma-Ata Institute of Foreign Languages.

He was named after his uncle Kassym Tokayev, who was also a Red Army soldier and was killed during the Battle of Rzhev.

When describing the impact the war had on his father, Tokayev said that he "did not like to talk about the war" and only shared his feelings upon "his first encounter with the enemy, the courage of the average soldier, and his burning desire to return home."

Kemel after the war received a medal for his coverage of the development of the Virgin Lands campaign.

Tokayev spent part of his childhood in the village of, Karatal District, Almaty Region, where his family had lived for generations.

Kassym-Jomart Kemeluly Tokayev (Қасым-Жомарт Кемелұлы Тоқаев; Qasym-Jomart Kemelūly Toqaev ; born 17 May 1953) is a Kazakh politician and diplomat who has served as the President of Kazakhstan since 2019.

From 1970, Tokayev attended the Moscow State Institute of International Relations where he studied Mandarin.

In his fifth year, Tokayev was sent to training courses at the Soviet embassy in China for six months.

After graduating in 1975, he worked as a diplomat in Singapore and China.

Upon graduation from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1975, Tokayev joined the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he was posted to the Soviet Embassy in Singapore.

In 1979, Tokayev returned to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1983, he went to China for training courses at the Beijing Language Institute.

In 1984–1985, he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He was then posted to the Soviet embassy in Beijing where he served until 1991 as Second Secretary, First Secretary, and Counsellor.

In 1991, he enrolled at the Soviet Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow for a training course towards senior diplomats.

After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Tokayev became the Deputy Foreign Minister of a newly independent Kazakhstan in 1992, where he was involved on the issues of nuclear disarmament within the former Soviet republics.

In March 1992, Tokayev was appointed as a Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

From there, he briefly took stance against nuclear disarmament in the former Soviet republics of Belarus and Ukraine under pressure by Russia, letting negotiations to be held under the United Nations Security Council, writing it as "a significant success of Kazakh diplomacy, which was taking its first steps in the international arena, opened the way for further negotiations with all influential states at the highest level."

In 1993, he became First Deputy Foreign Minister and on 13 October 1994, Tokayev was appointed to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In 1999, Tokayev became the Deputy Prime Minister, and in October of that year with the endorsement of the Parliament, he was appointed as Prime Minister by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

In March 1999, Tokayev was promoted to the post of Deputy Prime Minister.

In October 1999, with the endorsement of the Parliament, he was appointed as a Prime Minister by Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

From 2002, Tokayev served as Foreign Minister and State Secretary, where he continued to play an active role in the field of nuclear non-proliferation.

He was the Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva from 2011 to 2013 and served twice as a Chairman of the Kazakh Senate from 2007 to 2011 and 2013 to 2019.

Between 20 March and 12 June 2019, he served as acting president after the resignation of Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had been president for nearly three decades.

Born in Alma-Ata (now Almaty), Tokayev attended the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

In 2019, Tokayev assumed office as the acting president after Nursultan Nazarbayev's resignation.

Being a member of the ruling Amanat party, he won a non-democratic snap election in June of that year with the support of Nazarbayev as the nominee for the party.

After being fully sworn to office, Tokayev pledged to continue Nazarbayev's policies.

During his presidency, he has enacted several reforms including increasing workers' salaries, reducing corruption, abolishing capital punishment, and decentralising the local government.

From 2020, Tokayev had endured the economic downturn and issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and War in Afghanistan and has sought to counter Kazakhstan's rising inflation, domestic terrorism, illegal migration, drug trafficking, nuclear energy development and power shortages caused by cryptocurrency mining, as well as the COVID-19 vaccination rollout.

In 2022, Tokayev announced constitutional reforms that would limit his powers and grant more authority to the Parliament.

As a result, he initiated a constitutional referendum which was backed by an overwhelming number of voters and led to the complete stripping of Nazarbayev's post-presidential privileges regarding policymaking.

Since becoming president, Tokayev's political influence and role in Kazakhstan had steadily grown apart from Nazarbayev as he assumed various other powerful positions which were previously held by Nazarbayev starting with the chairmanship of the Assembly of People in 2021.

In January 2022, he imposed a nationwide state of emergency, dismissed the entirety of Asqar Mamin's government, and ordered security forces to use deadly force following a two-week long violent unrest that had begun earlier that month.

Shortly thereafter, Tokayev took the leading role in the Security Council and ruling Amanat party from Nazarbayev and along with his relatives, dismissed several officials who held a close relationship with Nazarbayev.

While managing to maintain the country's stability, ensuring political transition, and enacting new reforms, Tokayev's governance has remained authoritarian with human rights abuses.

The 2022 Suisse Secrets leaks revealed that the Tokayev family had maintained an elaborate network of secretive offshore wealth assets since at least 1998.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was born to a Kazakh family in the city of Alma-Ata (now Almaty).