Kazakh deputy proposes naming capital city after president

A lawmaker in Kazakhstan has proposed renaming the capital to Nursultan after the president who has ruled the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Lawmaker Sat Tokpakbayev says the gesture would honor President Nursultan Nazarbayev's efforts in promoting the city.

The capital was moved in 1997 from Almaty to barren northeastern Kazakhstan. The move transformed the backwater city of Akmola into Astana, a showplace of gleaming modernist buildings and monuments.

Tokpakbayev's spokeswoman said Wednesday that most deputies support the proposal to change Astana's name to Nursultan.