NUR-SULTAN, January 8. /TASS/. The first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, stays in the capital of the republic and maintains direct contact with the current president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, according to press secretary of Nazarbayev Aidos Ukibay.

"Elbasy (the leader of the nation Nursultan Nazarbayev - TASS) is located in the capital of Kazakhstan, the city of Nur-Sultan. We ask you not to spread false and speculative information," Ukibay wrote on Twitter.

On January 2, crowds took to the streets in the cities of Zhanaozen and Aktau in the Mangystau Region, in southwestern Kazakhstan, protesting against high fuel prices. Two days later, the protests engulfed Almaty, in the country’s southeast, where the police used flashbangs to disperse the crowd, as well as other cities, including Atyrau, Aktobe (in the west), Uralsk (in the northwest), Taraz, Shymkent, Kyzylorda (in the south), Karaganda (in the northeast) and even Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan. The president imposed a two-week state of emergency in the Mangystau Region and in the Almaty Region, as well as the republic’s largest city of Almaty and the capital Nur-Sultan. On January 5, the head of the state also accepted the government’s resignation. Its members will continue to perform their tasks until a new cabinet is formed.