Kazakhstan returns name of capital from Nur-Sultan to Astana
ASTANA, Kazakhstan: In the latest effort from politicians to distance themselves from the former Soviet republic's first president, Kazakhstan's parliament renamed the country's capital city from Nur-Sultan to Astana.
The steppe city, known as Tselinograd in the Soviet era, became the capital in 1997 and was renamed Astana the following year.
Kazakhstan's former president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, said at th