ASTANA, January 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived Tuesday in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, for Nursultan Nazarbayev's presidential inauguration, scheduled for January 11.
Boris Yeltsin, the first Russian president, arrived in Kazakhstan with Putin, and will also attend the ceremony.
Nazarbayev has been in power since the country gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. He consolidated his position with a landslide election victory in early December 2005, winning 91% of the vote, and will serve for another seven years.
