Kazakhstan is a country in the middle of Eurasia. Its official name is the Republic of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is the ninth biggest country in the world, and it is also the biggest landlocked country in the world. Before the end of the Soviet Union, it was called "Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic". The president of the country from 1991 through March 2019 was Nursultan Nazarbayev. Nur-Sultan is the capital city of Kazakhstan. Almaty was the capital until 1998, when it moved to Nur-Sultan, which was called Astana at that time.