Observers of the Republic of Kazakhstan have been asking themselves for years: How longwill President Nursultan Nazarbayev remain in office? The background to the question is, onthe one hand, the almost three decades of government and, on the other hand, the age ofthe president, who turned 78 on 6 July. Since the late summer of 2016, when Islam Karimovdied in office in neighbouring Uzbekistan, Nazarbayev has been the last remainingpresident to assume the high office in Soviet times.