Formal Name: Republic of Kazakstan.
Short Form: Kazakstan.
Term for Citizens: Kazakstani(s).
Capital: Almaty, scheduled to move to Aqmola 1998.
Date of Independence: December 16, 1991.
Size: Approximately 2,717,300 square kilometers.
Topography: Substantial variation according to region; Altay and Tian Shan ranges in east and northeast, about 12 percent of territory, reach elevation of nearly 7,000 meters; more than three-quarters of territory desert or semidesert, with elevations below sea level along Caspian Sea coast in far west.
Climate: Continental and very dry except in eastern moun-tains, where snowfall heavy; wide temperature variation between winter and summer.
Data as of March 1996