Former president’s love life revelations – an awkward read 

Judging by excerpts from former president Nursultan Nazarbayev’s upcoming autobiography, it is going to be an exercise in self-indulgence. 

The book also appears to be aimed at sorting out some “family stuff” by making ‘official’ Nazarbayev’s only two sons, whom he has fathered with his third, unofficial, wife.    

With his first, and only official wife, Sara, Nazarbayev has three daughters.  

It is known that the ex-president has two more daughters from his relationship with Gulnara Rakisheva – all three reportedly live abroad. 

The book entitled “My Life. From Dependence to Freedom” has been seen by a few chosen opinion makers who have been sent pre-release samples.  

In the leaked excerpts, Nazarbayev reveals that he has two “lovely” sons, Tauman and Bayken, aged 18 and 15 respectively. 

“A son is an heir and one who continues the family line. [Having a son] gives you confidence and inspiration. When you know that your family line will go on, you can never lose hope,” he writes in the book. 

He writes that the boys allowed him to experience “the joy of fatherhood” again, “when I was already over 65”.  

Their existence helped him get through the “hard period of building the new capital [Astana]”, he writes. 

“At the end of the day, the main thing in life, the most genuine and lasting happiness that man can experience is the happiness of parenthood,” Nazarbayev adds.  

A desire to protect the sons could have been a reason why Nazarbayev did not go for a dynastic power transition – in a family power feud scenario the young sons could have been ‘swept away’ by their older rich and influential half-sisters (and their husbands), their uncles and others. 

Nazarbayev writes that he and the boys’ mother, Asel, had married in a Muslim ceremony.  

He writes he met Asel when she greeted him and gave him flowers, as part of an official ceremony, during his visit, as president, to Taldykorgan. He describes her at the time as being “stunningly beautiful” and as “a fair-skinned beauty, with fiery eyes and a graceful, delicate figure”. 

He says meeting Asel was “a turning point” in his life. After he and Asel started “seeing each other”, he realised that “both in her looks, and way of thinking” he found what he was looking for. 

“The main thing, I got rid of the loneliness that my soul was suffering for years.”  

Nazarbayev also says in the book that he “has always been grateful to and cared about” his first wife Sara – “the mother of my daughters, Dariga, Dinara and Aliya”. 

He writes that Sara “showed nobility” and “understood and forgave” him for leaving her for Asel. 

“She did not jump at me, did not start torturing my already frazzled soul,” he writes, adding that his daughters “also took it in the right way”. 

“This is it, friends. I have opened all the truth to you. Take it as you wish,” Nazarbayev adds. 

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