Kyrgyzstan politics

Work on Kyrgyzstan’s North-South Alternative Highway, an ambitious project to speed up travel throughout the mountainous country and help connect its disparate regions, may finally be coming to an end.

The Japarov-Tashiev tandem has sunk real roots into Kyrgyzstan’s society, and those roots are deeper and stronger than they might seem on the surface.

The restrictive law was first proposed 10 years ago. How could it affect Kyrgyz society now that it’s been passed?

Kyrgyzstan’s next presidential election isn’t due until 2027, but Central Asia doesn’t always stick to schedule – making early chatter about a second term interesting. 

After a December 1 meeting in Tajikistan, security officials on both sides are proclaiming success and promising progress.

The Kyrgyz public’s doubts and questions about the Kolbaev killing are the expression of what they cannot see for lack of a transparent legal system amid the state’s apparent fight against criminality. 

Two years after re-instituting the Constitutional Court, Japarov has approved a law that opens its decisions to presidential interference.

Kolbaev’s death was a sudden end to a long, infamous, career of escaping the law both internationally and within Kyrgyzstan.

Kusturizatsia means, literally, “vomiting.” Under the practice, corrupt individuals can repay a fraction of stolen proceeds to the state and then go about their business. Who knows where the money goes?

Kyrgyzstan’s Social Democrats have limited influence on domestic politics. What to make of their sustained push for international partnerships?

Some worry that the push for matronymics, the use of a second name derived from a person’s mother rather than their father, has enabled a concentration of presidential power.