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FILE - A portrait of former Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the city hall building after clashes in the central square blocked by Kazakhstan troops and police in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. KazakhstanâÄ™s influential former leader has released a short video in which he talked about the violent unrest that engulfed the ex-Soviet nation earlier this month. In it he also rejected reports alleging that he fled the country amid tensions with the current president. The video published Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022 was the first time Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ran Kazakhstan for 29 years after it gained independence and kept an influential post after stepping down as president, spoke publicly about the protests and the bloodshed they descended into. (AP Photo/Vasily Krestyaninov, File)