AKIPRESS.COM - Nursultan Nazarbayev has fired Bakytzhan Sagintayev's government for a failure to raise living standards and diversify away from oil and gas.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev says on the presidential website he will soon propose “a range of measures to strengthen social welfare and raise people’s quality of life.”

Nazarbayev says the focus will be on more support for the poor, improving living conditions and regional development. Poor families, he says, are seeing stagnant incomes and spending more of their earnings on food.

The announcement follows a wave of protests by Kazakh women calling for more financial support for children and safer housing after a fire in which five children died.

Askar Mamin was assigned to be interim Prime Minister of Kazakhstan. He is acting First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan since 2016.

Sagintayev has served as Prime Minister since September 2016.