Dariga Nazarbayeva

Dariga Nursultanqyzy Nazarbayeva (Дариға Нұрсұлтанқызы Назарбаева, Dariğa Nūrsūltanqyzy Nazarbaeva; born 7 May 1963) is a Kazakh businesswoman and politician who is the daughter of Nursultan Nazarbayev who was the President of Kazakhstan from 1990 to 2019.

Nazarbayeva was born at Temirtau on 7 May 1963.

From 1980 to 1983, she studied at the history department at Moscow State University.

In 1981–1982, she completed her secondary education at K. Satpayev Gymnasium No. 56 in Alma-Ata.

She graduated from the S. M. Kirov Kazakh State University in 1985, and in 1991, defending her thesis for a candidate degree in historical sciences at the Moscow State University.

Since the late 1990s, Nazarbayeva has regularly appeared on Kazakh TV as a singer.

Her repertoire includes Kazakh folk songs, Russian romances, opera arias and songs by Joe Dassin.

Nazarbayeva began her career in 1994 in media business as she headed Khabar, the largest national television agency in Kazakhstan.

In 1994, Nazarbayeva became the vice president of the Television and Radio of Kazakhstan Republican Corporation.

In 1995, the Khabar TV channel was created.

The organizations associated to Nazarbayeva purchased the Europa Plus Radio Station, KTK and NTK television companies and popular newspaper Сaravan.

TV-Media and Alma-Media companies were established to manage the new media holding.

In 1998, Nazarbayeva defended her thesis for Ph.D degree in political sciences at the Russian Academy of State Service.

Nazarbayeva became the vice president of her mother Sara Nazarbayeva's Bobek Children's Charity Fund.

In 1998, Khabar was transformed into a closed joint-stock company, and Nazarbayeva became President of the Company, and in 2001, the Chairperson of the Board of Directors.

In October 2002, Nazarbayeva became the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Choice of the Young People block; it was proposed to create the Congress of Youth of Kazakhstan at the first conference of the block.

In 2003, she founded the Asar party and the following year later in 2004 for the first time, Nazarbayeva was elected to the Mäjilis.

In October 2003, Nazarbayeva organized and became the leader of the Asar Republican Party.

In a few months, more than 167,000 applications were collected from those wishing to join Asar; 139,000 applications were processed and authenticated, and 77,000 signatures were submitted to the Ministry of Justice for registration.

In December 2003, the party was registered.

She was a member of the Mäjilis from 2004 to 2007, 2012 to 2015 and 2021 to 2022.

According to the results of the elections to the Mäjilis in 2004, the party polled 541,239 (11.38%) votes on a party list basis and ranked the third; Nazarbayeva became an elected member from the Asar party-list in the Mäjilis, alongside with three deputies from the party were elected in single-member constituencies.

In February 2005, a new Deputy Group of Aimak formed in the Parliament, consisting of 36 deputies (28 deputies from the Mäjilis and 8 deputies from the Senate).

Nazarbayeva was elected as the group leader.

The main goals of the Aimak Deputy Group were to promote and monitor the implementation of existing state and industry programs aimed at regional development, take an active part in the development and legislative support of administrative reform and local self-government and develop entrepreneurship.

While serving the post there, the Asar in 2006 merged with the Amanat, a ruling party that was led by her father Nazarbayev.

On 4 July 2006, an extraordinary party convention was held where they decided to merge with the Otan Republican Political Party (later Nur Otan from December 2006), with Nazarbayeva being elected as the deputy chairwoman of Amanat under her father's chairmanship.

Following the dissolution of the Mäjilis in 2007, Nazarbayeva did not run for re-election and remained out of politics until her eventual return in 2012 to the Mäjilis seat where she was the deputy chairwoman and parliamentary leader of Amanat.

She remained as a member of the Mäjilis until its dissolution on 20 June 2007.

In 2011, Nazarbayeva gave a recital “Salem, Russia” in Moscow on the new stage in the Bolshoi Theater, and the Organ Hall of Astana.

A Russian company Universal Music filmed her concert performances at various venues for the musical television movie My Star.

The two-part film was presented in 2012.

In 2013, she gave a concert, co-organized by Count Pierre Sheremetev, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, with the Orchestre Lamoureux directed by Dmitry Yablonsky and the Sazgen sazi group directed by Baghdat Tilegenov, and with some artists as the pianist Timur Urmancheev, Sundet Baigozhin or Medet Chotabaev.

She was Deputy Chairwoman of Mäjilis from 2014 to 2015 until being appointed as a Deputy Prime Minister under Massimov's cabinet.

In 2015, Nazarbayeva was appointed by her father as Deputy Prime Minister under PM Karim Massimov before then returning to the Parliament in 2016 as a Senator.

She was a member of the Kazakh Senate from 2016 to 2020, serving as Senate Chairwoman from 2019 to 2020.

She is one of the richest women in Kazakhstan.

After her father's resignation from presidency in 2019, Nazarbayeva took over Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's role as the Senate Chairwoman, while Tokayev in turn, became the President of Kazakhstan.

In 2020, she was unexpectedly removed from the post by Tokayev shortly before returning to the Mäjilis once more in 2021.

Because of Nazarbayeva's high-ranking official positions and relations with her father, it had been widely speculated that she was potentially being prepared for presidency as a way to succeed Nazarbayev's legacy in a nepotist fashion despite the dismissed claims by Nazarbayev himself.