The capital city of Kazakhstan has undergone three name changes since it replaced the former capital city, Almaty, in 1997. First Akmola then Astana, now the glamorous city of the steppe is called Nur-Sultan, named after Nursultan Nazarbayev, currently the country’s only leader since the its independence from the USSR in 1991. (by Ryan Koopmans - Kazakhstan, 2011)