Saken Zhasuzakov

Saken Adilkhanuly Zhasuzakov is a Kazakh politician and former Colonel General in the Kazakh Ground Forces. He was Minister of Defense of Kazakhstan from September 2016 until August 2018.

Biography

He was born in Chaldar, a village in Southern Kazakhstan in 1957. In 1978, Zhasuzakov graduated from the Alma-Ata Higher All-Arms Command School. From September 1987 to June 1990 he was a pupil of the M. V. Frunze Military Academy. In July 1994 he moved to Russia to attend the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. In 1996, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan.
In 2003, he became First Deputy Commander of Land Forces, and that same year he became Commander of the Regional Command "East". In April 2009, Zhasuzakov was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces. From 2013 to 2016, Zhasuzakov was the First Deputy Minister of Defence of Kazakhstan. He was appointed as Minister of Defense of Kazakhstan by Presidential Decree on 13 September 2016.
He was replaced as defense minister on 7 August 2018 by Nurlan Ermekbaev. He currently heads the National Defence University in Astana. Exactly a year later, he retired from the military.