Kazakh leader changes the letter of the law

Kazakhstan is to change its official alphabet for the third time in less than 100 years, in what is seen in part as a move to underline its independence.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s president, ordered his office yesterday to prepare for a switch to a Latin-based alphabet from a Cyrillic one.

The former Soviet republic has close ties with Moscow, but is wary of Russia’s ambitions to maintain its political influence.

Kazakh, a Turkic language, used to be written in Arabic script until the Twenties when the Soviet Union introduced a Latin alphabet for it. This was replaced by a Cyrillic one in 1940, based on the Russian alphabet.