Lady Thatcher praised Nursultan Nazarbayev for "moving from Communism to Thatcherism" when she visited him in 1991, so impressed was she with policies that helped the Kazakh ruler pull in £75 billion of foreign investment, raise living standards, and stave off the kind of protests that are tearing apart the Arab world.
But Mr Nazarbayev, who is nothing if not a great balancer, also has an autocratic side that resembles the old Kazakh khans than Lady Thatcher may have been comfortable with.
The seventy-year old former steelworker, known as "Papa", or "Number One," has made it clear in recent months, that, health-permitting, he aims to keep control until at least 2020, when he will be 80 years old.
Last year the constitution was changed to make him "Elbasy," or "Leader of the Nation," giving him a lifelong veto over national laws and protection from prosecution for any acts committed during his reign. The new law specifies long jail sentences for those who criticise him, and even for those who pry into his bank accounts.
Mr Nazarbayev is also a master of balancing the interests of different elite groups in the country.
Since the country's independence in 1991, he started to buy their loyalty by spreading the spoils of the country's resource-led boom, providing jobs in state companies for their sons, and lucrative contracts for their businesses – all the while ensuring none become too dominant by artfully setting off rivals against each other.
He has taken a similar path in international diplomacy, ensuring that Kazakhstan never becomes a vassal state of its powerful neighbours, by balancing between China, Russia and the West.
The loyalty of less-educated Kazakhs, meanwhile, is ensured by a growing personality cult, which, aside from his image in offices and on billboards, is largely hidden from Western eyes.
At Ushkonyr, the small village near Almaty where he was born, there is a shrine-like museum in the local school, where the president was educated.
On the wall, is a giant oil painting of Karasai Batyr, the ancient Kazakh warrior, who Mr Nazarbayev claims as an ancestor, backed by the shadow of a snow leopard.
"It's a symbol of Karasai Batyr, it's a symbol of our tribe, it is a symbol of our president, and now it's a symbol of our nation," says the headmistress, a relative of the president.
Mr Nazarbayev was born in answer to a prayer his parents made to Allah at a holy shrine, she recounts, adding that his grandmother had had a vision of his future greatness.
"When he was five years old, she saw a dream of Nursultan riding a white horse, and riding this horse above the clouds. This is a very good sign. And in the morning she made a sacrifice and asked Allah to make this dream come true."
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