Kazakhstan's president supported a proposal to restore the former name of the capital to Astana, only three years after he renamed it Nursultan in honor of his predecessor.

One of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's first moves upon taking office in 2019 after President Nursultan Nazarbayev stepped down was to call for Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, to be dubbed Nursultan instead.

Nazarbayev, who led the country for three decades under the Soviet Union and after it gained independence in 1991, relocated the capital from Almaty to Astana in 1997. The move was widely questioned because of the city's relative isolation in the northern steppes and notoriously frigid winters in which temperatures plunge as low as 51 degrees Celsius below zero (minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit).

He made the city into a showplace of gaudy architecture, including an observation tower where visitors can place their hands in a print of Nazarbayev's.

After he stepped down, Nazarbayev retained enormous influence as head of the country's ruling party and security council. But Tokayev removed him from those posts after deadly unrest in January that hinged partly on dissatisfaction with the power that Nazarbayev still wielded.

Tokayev's spokesperson Ruslan Zheliban said the president agreed to the name change after an initiative by a group of parliament members.