Almaty's bid has so far been memorable only for its lack of organisation and activity, mainly due to the lack of high-level Government support and continuing bad publicity associated with the reported $51 billion (£26 billion/€32 billion) that Sochi spent on preparing for this year's Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

"I also had doubts," Nazarbayev admitted an interview broadcast on the STV television channel in Kazakhstan

"It takes much to host such a gigantic Olympics.

"And people are concerned about the costs, and whether it is worth it or not.

"I have been thinking about it a lot and working on it with my colleagues."

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev admitted during a television interview he "had doubts" over Almaty's bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics but is now fully behind it ©STV

But Nazarbayev now finally appears ready to back the bid with his support, although in return he wants some events staged in Astana, which replaced Almaty as the country's capital in 1997.

Such a plan is now possible under the International Olympic Committee's Agenda 2020, passed earlier this month, which allows co-hosting. 

The two cities co-hosted events during the 2011 Asian Winters with Almaty staging the skiing events, bandy and some of the ice hockey. 

The skating events and the majority of the ice hockey was held in Astana.

The Ceremonies were also split between the two cities with Astana staging the Opening and Almaty the Closing. 

"The Olympic Committee made a decision to hold [the Olympic Games] in the two cities, that is, Astana will also be involved," said Nazarbayev.

Almaty is already considered to be too far behind its only rival, Beijing, to have a realistic chance of winning but Nazarbayev remains hopeful that the fact it already has so many facilities in place will help it. 

"There is a skating rink high in the mountains near Almaty that is ready for the Olympics, world-class ski jumping complex is in place, a biathlon complex that we built for the Asian Games is ready.," he told STV.