Nazarbayev told what influenced his decision to resign

A back surgery in 2011 influenced the decision of the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to step down as HEAD of state in 2019. He stated this on the air of the Khabar TV channel.

“I will now say a thing that I have never said, it will be a sensation - I underwent surgery on a vertebra, on my back, a very serious operation,” he said (quoted by tengrinews).

According to him, on March 8, 2011, he attended a concert, after which he felt that he could not move his leg. “It turned out that I had problems in the vertebrae, and I had an operation. Cured, everything is fine. It also mattered to my decision. I never spoke about it, forgive me. I had to leave, I was not ready to leave yet, because the issue of a successor had not been resolved. I think [the decision to resign in 2019] is right, more than two years have passed, I have no regrets,” the former head of state said.

Nazarbayev also clarified that, apart from that incident, he had never been sick with anything. “Now I don’t get sick,” he added.