Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has appointed Dauren Abaev, the former press secretary of his predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbaev, to the post of ambassador to Russia, the presidential press service said on July 3. Abaev, who held several key posts in Kazakhstan before becoming deputy secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Independent States in March, was at the center of a scandal in 2021 after he called Kazakh activists who demanded the use of the Kazakh language instead of Russian at official and public places promoters of "cave nationalism." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.
Nazarbaev's Former Press Secretary Appointed Kazakh Ambassador To Russia
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