After deadly protests forced reforms in 2022, Kazakhstan’s president agreed to one term. His new Constitution offers two Putin-style escape hatches to stay in power.
On January 31, Kazakhstan unveiled a draft of its new Constitution, the culmination of what President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has framed as a parliamentary overhaul. The initiative began in September 2025, when Tokayev proposed dismantling Kazakhstan’s two-chamber parliament in favor of a unicameral model, arguing that the Senate is a relic of the “unstable political conditions” of 1995 that has served its purpose. He claims the new structure will allow bills to pass more efficiently, though he cautioned that the shift would require changes to about 40 articles of the Constitution.
However, as work progressed on Kazakhstan’s constitutional revisions, it became clear that far more amendments were necessary. Tokayev explained on January 20 that such large-scale changes were comparable to adopting a new Constitution. He created a special constitutional commission the following day. The group acted swiftly, reportedly drafting the revised Constitution in just 10 days.
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The plan calls for amendments to 77 articles, which account for 84 percent of the Constitution’s text. Key changes include:
- A unicameral general assembly called the “Kurultai” — a historical term rooted in Turkic and Mongol traditions — will replace the bicameral parliament. The number of deputies will decrease from 148 to 145, and the plan eliminates quotas for appointed deputies.
- Restores the position of vice president, which existed in Kazakhstan until 1996. The president will appoint the vice president with the Kurultai’s approval. If the president leaves office early, the vice president becomes the successor and must call new elections within two months.
- Expands the list of senior officials appointed by the president by at least double. If the Kurultai twice refuses to approve the appointments, the president may dissolve the parliament.
- Creates a new advisory state body: the People’s Council. It will convene at least once a year, with the authority to introduce bills to the Kurultai and to propose referendums. Under the plan, the president would appoint the council’s members.
- Introduces new limitations on free speech, stipulating that speech must not “encroach upon the honor and dignity of other persons, the health of citizens, or public morality, and must not violate the public order.”
- International treaties ratified by Kazakhstan will no longer have automatic priority over the country’s domestic laws.
- Defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
A proposed change regarding the use of the Russian language has drawn the most backlash in Russia. Under Kazakhstan’s current Constitution, Russian is used “equally” with Kazakh in government offices. While the draft of the new Constitution published on January 31 left this phrasing untouched, Bakhyt Nurmukhanov, deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court and a member of the reform commission, announced on February 9 that the word “equally” would be replaced with “alongside.”
Kazakhstan has a total population of approximately 20 million. According to 2021 census data, 2.98 million residents identify as Russian, and 2.85 million consider Russian their native language. Among ethnic Russians, 2.1 million reported not speaking the state language, Kazakh.
Nurmukhanov said the decision was made for the sake of “terminological and semantic uniformity.” According to the Russian state media outlet Sputnik Kazakhstan, the formal status of Russian is not changing; it will remain Kazakhstan’s language of interethnic communication and the second most prevalent language throughout the country. The story nonetheless circulated widely in Russian media circles, drawing criticism from pro-Kremlin figures.
“There’s a huge difference between ‘equally’ and ‘alongside,’” State Duma Deputy Konstantin Zatulin warned. A fellow Russian lawmaker, Viktor Vodolatsky, claimed that the change would allow Kazakhstani officials to choose whether to use Russian. At the same time, pundits Vladimir Evseev and Dmitry Solonnikov argued that Kazakhstan is ignoring its ties to Russia to please the U.S., while the pro-Kremlin news site ANNA News went even further, declaring that Kazakhstan’s new Constitution is being “written in Brussels and Washington.” So far, there has been no comment from the Kremlin.
The language norm had previously drawn criticism within Kazakhstan as well. After the draft Constitution was published, but before officials clarified the distinction between “equally” and “alongside,” some critics demanded a revision of the provision. “We are not trying to limit the Russian language,” lawyer Meirman Kalmakhanuly said at a news conference on February 4. “But in people’s minds, the phrase ‘Russian is officially used equally with Kazakh’ means that these two languages are one and the same.”
Officials have not revealed if this criticism impacted how they framed the revised Constitution’s new Russian-language standard. The police actively pressured individuals who spoke out against the draft Constitution as a whole or against its individual provisions.
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For Kazakhstan’s leadership, the Russian language norm is a third rail, according to journalist Alexander Konstantinov. The state’s silence is driven by fears of internal discord and a strategic necessity to avoid provoking Russian “patriots.” As lawmaker Ermurat Bapi put it, the nation must tread carefully to avoid “catastrophe,” noting that Kazakhstan is not in a position to underestimate “the strength of the arrogant and the malevolent.” Moreover, officials believe that Russian does not threaten Kazakh, which is growing organically.
“Demographically and culturally, Kazakhstan has changed significantly over the past decade. The new generation of young citizens perceives Kazakh as their first — and often only — language. When it comes to learning other languages, they study English, French, or Chinese. Russian is present as background noise, but it’s definitely on its way out,” notes Vyacheslav Polovinko, Novaya Gazeta’s special correspondent in Kazakhstan.
In Polovinko’s view, the primary defect of the new Constitution is not the language provisions or the many discrepancies, which even the authors acknowledge. Instead, the document consolidates Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s power ahead of a new political transition.
Kazakhstan’s president is currently limited to one seven-year term. Tokayev himself approved this rule after large-scale protests in 2022. His term ends in 2029, and he has promised to abide by the law. However, the new Constitution theoretically offers him a way to circumvent these restrictions — either by “zeroing out” his presidential terms, as President Putin did in 2020, or by transitioning to the vice presidency, as Prime Minister Putin did in 2008.
The referendum on Kazakhstan’s constitutional reforms is scheduled for March 15.