Mere days after breaking up an alleged assassination plot, Kyrgyz authorities finally got their hands on fugitive former deputy customs head Raimbek Matraimov, whom they’d implicated as behind the plot. On March 23, as Central Asia was reeling from news of the Crocus City Hall attack on the outskirts of Moscow, Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for … Read more
Struggling with “dysfunctional rule of law, rising authoritarianism and systemic corruption” the annual Corruption Perceptions Index, released on January 30 by Transparency International, presents a “troubling picture” for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Meanwhile, countries that score highly in the index “have long fuelled transnational corruption,” a mantra familiar in the region we cover here … Read more
Raimbek Matraimov is again a wanted man. Last week, Kyrgyz media reported sources stating that the State Committee on National Security (SCNS) had placed the infamous deputy customs head on a wanted list on suspicion of abducting and illegally incarcerating unnamed individuals. No further details have been offered about the charges. If anything proves that … Read more
Advertisement Kamchybek Tashiev, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (SCNS), announced late last week that more than 200 civil servants were being dismissed from their jobs “for connections with criminal elements and organized crime groups,” specifically naming Raiymbek Matraimov and Kamchybek Kolbaev. Kolbaev was killed last month by SCNS officers in a … Read more
Advertisement China’s Premier Li Qiang is visiting Kyrgyzstan later this month to discuss the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway, a sign that the project, which has been discussed for decades, may finally be realized. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions on Russia have created an appetite for alternative routes from China to Europe and the Middle … Read more
Advertisement The collapse of the Soviet Union sparked the creation of new informal practices across all of its former republics. Soviet-style corruption, in the form of blat (favors) and reiderstvo (corporate raiding), and newer informal practices, enabled the transition to independence. Like other parts of the former Soviet periphery, in Kyrgyzstan Soviet-era practices and ideas … Read more
Advertisement On the evening of August 30, Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov headlined a team of Central Asia’s best football players to go up against the Barca Legends. Some 5,000 people cheered on the game, which ended 3-0 in favor of the former Barcelona players. While Lionel Messi was not on the field, other famous players … Read more