Azernews.Az

Kazakhstan's entrenched president has proposed a first deputy prime minister, Serik Akhmetov, to head the government following the surprise departure of the country's long-serving prime minister, Karim Masimov, Radio Liberty reported.

The shakeup was unlikely to spell any major shifts, as President Nursultan Nazarbaev is the ultimate decision-maker in Kazakh domestic and foreign policy.

Kazakh parliament speaker Nurlan Nigmatulin announced the submission of Akhmetov's name for prime minister via his Twitter feed.

Kazakhstan's longest-serving prime minister after around 5 1/2 years atop the government, Masimov resigned and was immediately named by Nazarbaev to head the presidential administration.

Nazarbaev also accepted the resignations of the entire cabinet but ordered ministers to continue working until a new government was confirmed by parliament.

Masimov had been prime minister of Central Asia's largest economy since January 2007.

The previous head of the presidential administration, Aslan Musin, was named last week to head the government's budget-auditing committee.

During a final cabinet meeting in Astana on September 24, Masimov thanked Nazarbaev and the cabinet for their confidence in him.