Almaty?

Almaty lies in southeastern Kazakhstan at the foot of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains, near the border with China and Kyrgyzstan. Its position at the junction of mountain valleys made it the natural capital of the Kazakh khanate and later the Russian colonial administration, but after independence in 1991 it became the subject of the most ambitious capital relocation project in post-Soviet space.

The city's economy rested on trade and light manufacturing during the Soviet period. The collapse of central planning in 1991-1992 devastated many of these sectors, but Almaty's merchant class and banking infrastructure positioned it to become the financial centre of the resource-rich Kazakh Sovereign Republic. Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan from 1991 onwards, made the city the headquarters of his government's negotiations with the newly formed Union of Soviet Sovereign States, and it remained the operational centre of Kazakhstan's resource nationalism strategy through the 1990s and early 2000s.

The city's population grew rapidly from 1.2 million in 1991 to over 1.9 million by 2010, driven by migration from rural areas and neighbouring republics seeking employment in finance, oil trading, and services. This expansion created severe housing shortages and sprawl across the valley floor. Infrastructure, especially water supply drawn from mountain sources, became chronically strained. The city's expansion also intensified ethnic tensions between the Kazakh population and Russian and other minorities who remained from the Soviet era; by the early 2000s, demographic Kazakhification was visible in school enrolment and workplace composition, though Almaty remained more diverse than the countryside or the new capital.

Banking and commodity trading became dominant after 1995, as the Blagoveshchensk Framework of 2005 formalized Kazakhstan's role as a crude oil exporter to China. Almaty housed the regional headquarters of Chinese trading companies, and by 2010 Chinese merchants and investors were visible throughout the city's commercial districts. The Tyumen Compact of 2014, which granted Siberian republics direct export authority, strengthened Kazakhstan's hand further, and Almaty benefited from expanded customs and transport fees. Office towers rose rapidly in the central business district; the city's skyline transformed between 2005 and 2015 from a low-rise Soviet sprawl to a skyline of glass commercial buildings clustered near the old administrative core.

Culturally, Almaty reasserted itself as the custodian of Kazakh identity during this period. The Nazarbayev Center for Eurasian Studies, founded in 2008, anchored a cluster of research institutions that examined confederation structures and regional integration. The National Museum of Kazakhstan, reopened in a new building in 2014, reframed Kazakhstan's history around the republic's role as an energy power and a bridge between Russia and China rather than as a colonial periphery. The Almaty Opera House continued its Soviet-era traditions but increasingly hosted Central Asian contemporary performers and hosted the annual Central Asian Cultural Festival beginning in 2001.

Yet Almaty's growth masked underlying structural fragility. The city depended entirely on hydropower from mountain reservoirs and on water diverted from the Ili River, whose flow had been reduced by upstream irrigation in the Uzbek territories. By 2015, water shortages were acute, and the city consumed much of Kazakhstan's fiscal surplus on import pipelines and emergency measures. Manufacturing employment did not recover; most jobs in the city were in trade, services, and government. Real wage growth lagged the national average after 2008, and housing costs rose faster than incomes, driving younger workers to the new capital, Nur-Sultan.

The decision to build a new capital in central steppe — announced in 1994 and begun in 1996 — shifted Almaty's status from undisputed centre to one pole in a two-city federation. Government ministries relocated in phases between 1997 and 2008, leaving Almaty with the commercial, banking, and cultural apparatus but stripped of formal political power. The transition was disruptive; many officials resented the relocation, and Almaty's civic institutions felt a loss of purpose. By 2010, Nur-Sultan housed the presidency, parliament, and most central ministries, while Almaty retained the financial markets, universities, and cultural institutions. This division of function persisted into the present, making the two cities complementary rivals rather than a single coherent capital.

Climate and Geography

Almaty's position in a high mountain valley gives it a humid continental climate with cold winters and warm summers. The surrounding peaks exceed 3,000 metres, and snow from autumn through spring feeds the city's water supply. Glacial melt and summer storms create flash-flood hazards, and the city has experienced catastrophic flooding in 1921, 1973, and 1992. The 1992 flood killed over 100 people and destroyed significant portions of the Soviet-era city, accelerating decisions to invest in new infrastructure and contributing to the mood favouring a fresh start, both in Almaty's rebuilding and in the broader turn toward a new capital.