Kazakhstan refuses to rename Baiterek project in honor of ex-president

Kazakhstan has refused to rename the Baiterek project at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in honor of the country's former President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan, Malik Olzhabekov, stated that there are no plans to rename the new Baiterek space missile complex to Baikonur in honor of the country's former president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

According to RBC, he said that this topic sounded from the Russian side, but there were no official comments.

"We act within the framework of an agreement to implement a joint project "Baiterek.  It has not changed its name from the very beginning of its implementation," said Olzhabekov.

Vladimir Putin suggested naming Baiterek after Nazarbayev in September 2019. During his review of the complex project, he wondered about the meaning of the project's name. Having heard the Kazakh legend about the tree of life, after which the complex was named, the Russian president turned to Nazarbayev with the words: "Let's call it Nursultan." You did this project». Bagdat Musin, who was then the Minister of Digital Development of Kazakhstan, promised to discuss this proposal later.

To recall, Russia and Kazakhstan finally agreed on the construction of the "Baiterek" complex in 2018 on the basis of one of the sites in Baikonur. The corresponding document was signed by the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, and the Minister of Defense and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan, Beibut Atamkulov. As part of this project, they plan to hold 240 launches in 40 years at Baikonur.