ASTANA, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's 71-year-old president emerged in good health from his annual health screening on Tuesday and instructed government officials to shun expensive foreign trips in favour of regular check-ups at home, the presidential website said.
Nazarbayev was in "great physical shape" after a check-up in the Kazakh capital Astana, his website, www.akorda.kz, said in a statement quoting the specialists who examined the president.
It said his blood pressure was 120/75, cholesterol and blood glucose levels were ideal and that specialists had assessed a low risk of cardiovascular disease.
"To be honest, these are the sort of results we would usually see with new army recruits," state television quoted Valery Benberin, head of the Medical Centre of the President’s Administration, as saying.
The president’s statement is an extremely rare public acknowledgement of his health, usually a taboo subject in the oil-producing Central Asian country he has ruled without dissent for more than two decades.
It comes the day after he sacked son-in-law Timur Kulibayev, an influential billionaire seen by many investors as a possible successor, for mishandling an oil workers’ strike that escalated into the country’s deadliest clashes in decades.
Violence in western Kazakhstan, where at least 16 people were killed in clashes between riot police and protesters on Dec. 16-17, have dealt the most serious challenge to the image of stability that Nazarbayev has touted as his main achievement.
Foreign investors, who have poured more than $120 billion into Kazakhstan since independence, cite a lack of clarity over the succession to Nazarbayev as the biggest investment risk in a country that holds about 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves.
By sacking Kulibayev from the top job at sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, as well as the managers of two state-controlled oil companies, Nazarbayev has moved to reinforce his authority in the country of 16.6 million people.
HEALTH CHECKS
Nazarbayev quashed succession talk by winning a presidential election in April with an overwhelming 96 percent of the vote. This secured the former steelworker, who has prioritised economic growth over democracy, five more years in office.
But discussion of the succession resurfaced in the summer, after an unsourced report in a German tabloid newspaper that Nazarbayev underwent prostate surgery in Hamburg.
The president’s close adviser, Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, broke the official silence by saying Nazarbayev had gone abroad for a routine medical screening, something he does every year.
On Tuesday, however, he advised state officials to stay at home for their medical check-ups.
"The leadership of the country, ministers, governors, should undergo an annual health check-up. It’s useful for your health, for early diagnosis," he said in comments published on the presidential website.
"There’s no need to travel great distances abroad and to spend lots of money. Major medical centres with all the necessary equipment have been built in Astana. I suggest that everyone has their check-ups and treatment here, in Kazakhstan."
