Moscow (CNN) The last remaining Soviet-era head of state has stepped down.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his resignation Tuesday, after nearly three decades in office. The former Communist Party official is the last of the leaders who were running the 15 Soviet republics when the USSR collapsed in 1991.

In a nationally televised address, Nazarbayev, 78, alluded to Kazakhstan's transition to independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union, precipitated by the signing of the Belovezh Accords and a botched coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

"I have decided to terminate my powers as president," Nazarbayev said, according to a transcript of remarks carried by Russian state news agency TASS. "This year marks my 30th year in office as the supreme leader of our country. I was given the great honor of my great people to be the first president of independent Kazakhstan."

Nazarbayev is not as well known internationally as the man who runs the country to Kazakhstan's north: Russian President Vladimir Putin. But he has dominated political life in his country in a way that even the Kremlin leader cannot match.

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