almaty kazakhstan change official alphabet third time less 100 years see part symbolic move underline independence president nursultan nazarbayev order office thursday prepare switch latin-based alphabet cyrillic one distance least graphically russia oil-rich former soviet republic 18 million close tie moscow main trade partner also wary russia ambition maintain political influence throughout region kazakh turkic language use write arabic script 1920s soviet union briefly introduce latin alphabet late replace cyrillic one 1940 base russian alphabet part late switch relate modern technology currently use cyrillic alphabet 42 symbols make cumbersome use digital devices standard kazakh keyboard utilize almost number key addition letter punctuation key late version propose latin alphabet work around use apostrophe sign modify letter country official name would thus spell qazaqstan respy blikasy accord statement publish nazarbayev office order chief staff draft executive order introduce new alphabet switch gradual say alhough kazakh state language since kazakhstan become independent 1991 62 percent population say fluent write speak kazakh recent national census 2009. russian widespread 85 percent claim fluency census russian recognize official language kazakhstan several turkic nations include turkey ex-soviet azerbaijan turkmenistan uzbekistan also switch latin alphabets alphabet soup kazakh leader order switch latin letter