Kazakhstan's Tokayev Names Longtime Adviser Erlan Karin as Vice President
Kazakh President Tokayev appoints adviser Erlan Karin as vice president, a new post under the amended constitution, making him successor-in-waiting.
Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has appointed Erlan Karin, a close adviser for over five years, to the newly created position of vice president. The office was established under a revised constitution adopted earlier this year by Central Asia's largest economy.
Karin, 50, now stands first in line to succeed Tokayev. He brings a background in counter-terrorism and has been a key proponent of the president's "New Kazakhstan" reform agenda since 2019.
The constitutional changes also allow the 73-year-old Tokayev, whose current term ends in 2029, to seek another seven-year mandate. Under the basic law, presidents are otherwise restricted to a single term.
In a related move, Tokayev proposed the reappointment of Olzhas Bektenov as prime minister, a role he has held since 2024. Both appointments received swift parliamentary approval, with the legislature dominated by the pro-presidential Adilet party.
Tokayev, a former Soviet diplomat and senior UN official, initially came to power as the chosen successor of founding President Nursultan Nazarbayev. However, he broke decisively with his predecessor in 2022 following nationwide unrest that resulted in hundreds of deaths, which he characterized as an attempted coup by Nazarbayev-era figures.