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Billions of petrodollars have since turned the current capital, which was also known as Tselinograd in the Soviet era, into a glitzy metropolis.

In1961 it was renamed Tselinograd, then Akmola in 1992.

Photograph: Jose Fuste Raga/Corbis The official reason for relocating to Astana – previously the provincial settlement of Tselinograd, with a crumbling Soviet housing stock – was Almaty’s location in an earthquake-prone region.