Graduates pose and take pictures in front of a statue of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the First President's Park in Almaty, Kazakhstan, July 3, 2015. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
ASTANA/ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev celebrates his 75th birthday on Monday, in good shape and vastly popular, but the expected fireworks and fanfare mask uncomfortable questions about the future of the second-largest post-Soviet economy.
Nicknamed "Papa" and officially titled "Leader of the Nation", he extended his 26-year reign in April by another five years, "apologising" to his critics for cornering 97.7 percent of the vote in an early election which Western observers said offered no real alternative.
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