Image of autocrat to feature on 10,000-tenge note that goes into circulation in time for holiday celebrating his leadership

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The veteran president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is to feature on new banknotes, the country’s national bank has said, in another testimony to his personality cult.

The new 10,000-tenge (£23) note that feature the portrait of the 76-year-old leader goes into circulation on 1 December, in time for a holiday celebrating his leadership of the central Asian nation.



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“All Kazakhstan’s achievements since independence are inextricably linked to the first president of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev,” the chairman of the national bank, Daniyar Akishev, told reporters on Tuesday in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

The tenge is one of many currencies among the former Soviet republics that have been battered by western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine and depressed global energy prices.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A fan of tenge banknotes. Photograph: Reuters

Nazarbayev, officially known by the title “Father of the Nation”, is already the subject of a flattering biographical film and Astana has a museum in his honour.

But the autocrat, whose rule over Kazakhstan began before the country gained formal independence from Moscow in 1991, is not the first ruler in the energy-rich region to adorn a banknote.



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In neighbouring Turkmenistan, images of the late Saparmurat Niyazov appeared on the manat but were removed two years after his death in 2006.

Politicians in impoverished Tajikistan have also called recently for banknotes to sport a portrait of President Emomali Rakhmon, who has been in power since 1992.