Kazakh Leader said in "Great Shape" after Regular Health Check

    By Raushan Nurshayeva
    Kazakhstan's 71-year-old president emerged in good health fr om his annual health screening on Tuesday and instructed government officials to shun expensive foreign trips in favour of regular check-ups at home, the presidential website said.
    Nazarbayev was in "great physical shape" after a check-up in the Kazakh capital Astana, his website, www.akorda.kz, said in a statement quoting the specialists who examined the president.
    It said his blood pressure was 120/75, cholesterol and blood glucose levels were ideal and that specialists had assessed a low risk of cardiovascular disease.
    "To be honest, these are the sort of results we would usually see with new army recruits," state television quoted Valery Benberin, head of the Medical Centre of the President's Administration, as saying.
    The president's statement is an extremely rare public acknowledgement of his health, usually a taboo subject in the oil-producing Central Asian country he has ruled without dissent for more than two decades.
    It comes the day after he sacked son-in-law Timur Kulibayev, an influential billionaire seen by many investors as a possible successor, for mishandling an oil workers' strike that escalated into the country's deadliest clashes in decades.
    Violence in western Kazakhstan, wh ere at least 16 people were killed in clashes between riot police and protesters on December 16-17, have dealt the most serious challenge to the image of stability that Nazarbayev has touted as his main achievement.
    Foreign investors, who have poured more than $120 billion into Kazakhstan since independence, cite a lack of clarity over the succession to Nazarbayev as the biggest investment risk in a country that holds about 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, Reuters states.