Nazarbayev named Massimov to the premiership April 3, the day after the Cabinet — including former Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov — resigned. Pressure had been mounting on Akhmetov's government in recent months as a number of financial and economic issues combined into a potential crisis for Kazakhstan . Neighboring Russia's economic position has weakened during the recent standoff with the West over Ukraine, causing the Russian ruble to depreciate 11 percent since the start of the year. Since Kazakhstan is in the Customs Union with Russia, Astana has sought to keep the Kazakh currency, the tenge, closely pegged to the ruble. After the Kazakh government spent $2.2 billion in January to keep the tenge stable, the government decided to allow a mass depreciation of the currency by 19 percent in one day. This rippled through the country, leading to bank runs and price increases of 50-75 percent for basic goods.