Sadyr Japarov

Sadyr Nurgojo uulu Japarov (also Zhaparov; ; Садыр Нургожо уулу Жапаров; born 6 December 1968) is a Kyrgyz politician who is currently serving as the president of Kyrgyzstan since 28 January 2021.

After finishing his middle school education in 1986, he joined the Kyrgyz National Academy of Physical Culture and Sport.

In 1987, Japarov was drafted into the Soviet Army, where he served for two years in Novosibirsk as a commander in a telecommunications division.

After returning in 1989 with the rank of Junior Sergeant, Japarov continued his education in the academy until 1991.

Japarov began his political career as a deputy in 2005 after being elected to the Supreme Council and from 2007 served in the presidential administration under Kurmanbek Bakiyev before his overthrow in the 2010 Kyrgyz Revolution.

Japarov started his political career after the 2005 Tulip Revolution.

In March 2005, he was elected as member of the Supreme Council from the Tüp electoral district where he headed the Kelechek parliamentary faction.

He was a supporter of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

In 2006, Japarov graduated from the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in Bishkek with a degree in law.

In 2006, Japarov was a member of the State Awards Commission.

In 2007, he was Deputy Chairman of the Amnesty Commission.

In the 2007 parliamentary elections, he participated in the lists of the pro-presidential party Ak Jol, which won the majority of seats in parliament but went on to work as an adviser to the president.

From 2008 to 2010, Japarov worked as an authorized representative of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.

Japarov, during his tenure as a supreme commissioner in the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, was repeatedly accused of raiding the Issyk-Kul Bank in order to help the business empire of Maksim Bakiev, the son of then-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Japarov sister, Raikul Japarova, in alliance with Lithuanian businessman Mikhail Nadel, a friend of Maksim Bakiyev, forcibly seized the Issyk-Kul Bank.

Later, Raikul Japarova, becoming the nominal chairman of the Issyk-Kul bank, carried out all the instructions of Nadel to carry out all the activities.

NBKR documents stated that through this bank, Sadyr Japarov and his sister laundered $5 billion for Maxim Bakiyev.

Among which, according to the statement of the previous head of the State Committee for National Security, Abdil Segizbayev, there was money from drug trafficking and arms trafficking stating, "He made a turnover of this money and pulled it out clean and took his interest.".

In 2010, President Bakiyev was overthrown in the Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010.

As a result of interethnic clashes that took place soon in Osh and Jalal-Abad, Japarov and his associates took an active part, which according to their own statements, they tried to prevent clashes.

However they were accused by opponents in actively supporting the Kyrgyz nationalists and provoking the conflict.

Following the revolution, Japarov was re-elected as a member of Supreme Council on the party list of Ata-Zhurt led by Kamchybek Tashiev, which won the majority of seats in the 2010 parliamentary election.

From there, he became the chairman of the Committee on Judicial and Legal issues.

In his book 10 Years in Politics, Japarov later admitted that party received 3 million dollars for the 2010 parliamentary election from some "Kazakh friends."

According to the electoral legislation, receiving assistance from abroad is prohibited by law.

In the book, Sadyr Japarov accused Akhmatbek Keldibekov of embezzling funds from "Kazakh friends" in the 2010 elections.

Keldibekov was also a close associate of fugitive President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and was the head of the tax service of the Kyrgyz Republic.

From there, Japarov returned working as a deputy where he raised concerns regarding the nationalization of Kumtor Gold Mine and held popular rallies to overthrow the Kyrgyz government during the attempts of seizing the Bishkek White House and kidnapping an akim, which led for him to flee Kyrgyzstan for exile in 2013 to avoid prosecution.

Japarov returned to Kyrgyzstan to take part in the 2017 presidential election, where he was arrested and imprisoned for 11 years due to his prior illegal political activities.

He had previously served as the acting prime minister of Kyrgyzstan in the 2020 interim government following the resignation of President Sooronbay Jeenbekov.

Japarov also became acting president of Kyrgyzstan after Jeenbekov's resignation but resigned himself on 14 November 2020 to run for the 2021 presidential election, where he was elected to succeed the acting president Talant Mamytov.

His prison sentence time was cut short after eventually being freed by his supporters during the 2020 Kyrgyz Revolution and leading for his rise to power in Kyrgyzstan.

Japarov's presidency is viewed to be autocratic and authoritarian, as he implemented populist policies aimed at combating corruption by reintroducing a presidential system via constitutional and government system referendums which increased his executive powers and reduced the parliament's influence, as well as creating the People's Kurultai which resulted in Kyrgyzstan facing a democratic backsliding.

Several opposition politicians and activists were arrested, and new laws aimed at suppressing independent media were introduced.

Japarov pursued a multi-vector foreign policy with Kyrgyzstan's international partners and was named as one of main figures in allegedly supporting Russia to evade international sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.

He also faced the 2021 and 2022 Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan clashes where he expressed his intention to solve a border dispute with Tajikistan.

Japarov was born in Keng-Suu, a village in the Tüp District in what was then the Kirghiz SSR within the Soviet Union, in the family of Nurgozho and Kadic Japarov.

In 2020, Erkinbek Asrandiev, ex-deputy prime minister and former auditor of the bank in 2013, also confirmed the raiding of the Issyk-Kul bank and its use for the purpose of laundering the funds of the ruling regime by Japarov and his sister Raikul.

He stated it as a main reason for rejecting offer of Japarov to work in his cabinet of ministers in 2020.

Another remark concerns the fact that, being the High Commissioner for Corruption, Japarov did not take any measures against the corruption schemes of the clan of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, his brother Janish Bakiyev and son Maxim Bakiyev, but rather maintained warm family relations with them.