Sadyr Japarov

Sadyr Japarov was born on December 6, 1968, in the village of Keng-Suu in the Tüp district of Issyk-Kul Region, Kyrgyzstan, a rural area near Lake Issyk-Kul and the Tian Shan mountains. He is an ethnic Kyrgyz.⁠[1][2][3][4]

His father was Nurgozho and his mother Kadicha, and they raised 11 children; he recalled in an interview that the family farmed in the village.⁠[5]

From 1987 to 1989 he served in the Soviet Army, stationed in Novosibirsk, and was discharged in 1989 as a radiotelegraph commander.⁠[3][1][4]

Forbes Kazakhstan’s profile states that he began working in 1987 at the Santash collective farm in Chui district.⁠[2]

In 1991 he became head of a state farm, and from 1994 he held management posts at several oil companies.⁠[1]

Before 2005 he headed the Soltonkul farm, was director of the oil company Kergey, served as an inspector of a special company of the Issyk-Kul regional police department, and was general director of the companies Guzel and Nurneftegaz.⁠[2]

Xinhua’s 2025 profile states instead that he headed the Santash collective farm in Tüp district, Issyk-Kul Region, in 1986–1987 and 1989–1995, was deputy chairman of the Soltonkul farm in the same district from 1996 to 2000, and from 2000 to 2005 was successively general director of the Guzel fuel company and the Nur oil and gas company.⁠[4]

He entered representative politics in the 2005 parliamentary elections, which led to the Tulip Revolution and the ouster of President Askar Akayev. He entered Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, the Jogorku Kenesh, as the deputy for his home constituency of Tüp, sat in the Kelechek faction and backed the bloc of Kurmanbek Bakiyev; his first term as a deputy ran from 2005 to 2007.⁠[1][2][4]

In October 2007 he joined Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s Ak Jol party. From 2007 to 2009 he was an adviser to President Bakiyev and a commissioner of the National Anti-Corruption Agency. Xinhua’s 2025 profile states that he was presidential adviser from 2007 to 2009, a member of the National Anti-Corruption Agency from 2008 to 2009 and its head from 2009 to 2010.⁠[1][2][4]

After Kurmanbek Bakiyev was overthrown in April 2010, he joined the nationalist Ata-Jurt party. The party won 28 seats in the October 2010 parliamentary elections, becoming the largest force in parliament, and entered a coalition government led by Almazbek Atambayev’s SDPK. From 2010 to 2013 he again served as a deputy of the Jogorku Kenesh.⁠[1][2][4]

In 2012, as chair of the parliamentary committee on legal and judicial affairs, he led a campaign for the state to take control of the Kumtor gold mine from the Canadian company Centerra Gold.⁠[1]

In 2012 he and Kamchybek Tashiyev, among other Ata-Jurt leaders, led an aggressive protest at the seat of parliament in Bishkek, where hundreds of protesters tried to force their way into the building. Forbes Kazakhstan’s profile states that in the autumn of 2012, while a deputy, he joined his supporters at a rally for the nationalization of the Kumtor mine and that the crowd climbed the fence of the White House, the government building.⁠[1][2]

In March 2013 a district court in Bishkek found him and Kamchybek Tashiyev guilty on the prosecution’s charge of the forcible seizure or retention of power and sentenced each to one year and six months in prison; about three months later a higher court in Bishkek acquitted both.⁠[1]

Forbes Kazakhstan’s profile states instead that the Supreme Court found him and two associates guilty of attempting to seize power by force and of publicly calling for the overthrow of the constitutional order.⁠[2]

A court later found that in October 2013, at a rally he organized in Karakol, Issyk-Kul Region, against a local mining operation, participants forced the government’s envoy to Issyk-Kul Region, Emilbek Kaptagayev, into a car; he was accused of organizing the kidnapping. He denied the charge, left Kyrgyzstan and spent almost four years in Cyprus.⁠[1][2][6]

In March 2017 he tried to re-enter Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan and was detained by the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) after crossing the border.⁠[1][2][3]

On August 2, 2017, the Pervomaisky District Court in Bishkek sentenced him to 11 years and 6 months in prison for the 2013 kidnapping of Emilbek Kaptagayev; he denied the charge.⁠[2][1][6]

From prison he filed to run in the presidential election of October 15, 2017, but the authorities rejected his candidacy; the election was won by Sooronbay Jeenbekov.⁠[1]

His father, Nurgozho, died of an illness in September 2017 at the age of 84; the penitentiary service did not allow him to attend the funeral.⁠[5]

His mother, Kadicha, died in March 2019; the authorities allowed him to attend her funeral.⁠[5]

In April 2019 his sentence was reduced by a year and a half; thereafter he was serving a 10-year term.⁠[1][6]

Kaktus.media states that his eldest son, Dastan, died in a road accident in August 2019 and that he, then still in custody, was able to attend the funeral; Forbes Kazakhstan’s profile states that his eldest son died in hospital four days after a motorcycle accident.⁠[5][2]

Kyrgyzstan held parliamentary elections on October 4, 2020. In the results announced by the Central Election Commission, three pro-government parties won 107 of the 120 seats and Butun Kyrgyzstan won 13; his party, the nationalist conservative Mekenchil (“Patriot”), received about 7 percent, fell below the threshold and won no seats.⁠[1]

On Mekenchil’s list his brother Sabyr was second, behind Kamchybek Tashiyev; his wife, Aigul Asanbaeva, ran on the party’s list under her passport name, Gulnara.⁠[5][2]

Opposition parties rejected the results, and mass protests broke out in the capital on October 5. Protesters stormed the parliament building, the security service headquarters and detention facilities, freeing him, former president Almazbek Atambayev and other prominent detainees. CIDOB’s biography places the storming and his release on October 6; the FPRI article states that he was freed by protesters on October 5.⁠[1][3]

On October 6 the Central Election Commission annulled the parliamentary elections and Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov resigned. CIDOB’s biography states that 35 deputies named him acting prime minister that day while a rival opposition council backed Tilek Toktogaziyev; Forbes Kazakhstan’s profile states that an extraordinary session of the Jogorku Kenesh elected him prime minister that day, replacing Kubatbek Boronov.⁠[1][2]

On October 8 President Sooronbay Jeenbekov said he was ready to resign once a new government was formed. On October 9 Jeenbekov declared a state of emergency, accepted Kubatbek Boronov’s resignation and made Almazbek Baatyrbekov acting prime minister; the same day the Supreme Court reopened his case and returned it to the prosecutor’s office, while his lawyers sought an outright acquittal.⁠[1]

On October 10 parliament voted to confirm him as prime minister, but only 51 deputies were present, short of the 60 required, so for a time there were two rival acting prime ministers. The FPRI article states that a gathering of deputies at the presidential residence elected him prime minister on October 10.⁠[1][3]

On October 14 parliament voted again, this time with a quorum, and he became prime minister in full.⁠[1][3]

On October 15 Sooronbay Jeenbekov resigned as president, saying he did not want to be remembered as a president who spilled blood. Because the parliamentary speaker, Kanatbek Isayev, declined to take on the presidential powers, he declared that he would exercise them himself.⁠[1][3][7]

On October 16 parliament accepted Sooronbay Jeenbekov’s resignation, confirmed him as acting president until new presidential and parliamentary elections, and lifted the state of emergency.⁠[1]

On October 22 parliament passed a fast-tracked constitutional change postponing the repeat parliamentary elections to June 2021; the constitution then in force required a presidential election within three months of a vacancy. A November 4, 2020 RFE/RL report states that the parliamentary rerun, tentatively set for December 20, had been postponed to an unspecified date in 2021, that the early presidential election was set for January 10, 2021, and that he had initiated constitutional amendments to change the election rules.⁠[1][7]

On November 14, 2020, he announced that he was stepping down as acting president and suspending his duties as prime minister so that he could run in the early presidential election set for January 10, 2021. Under the constitution then in force, the parliamentary speaker, Talant Mamytov, became acting president; the day before, he had said that if his powers as prime minister were suspended, First Deputy Prime Minister Artem Novikov would become acting prime minister. Talant Mamytov had been elected speaker after Kanatbek Isayev said on November 4 that he would step down and indicated that he planned to run for president.⁠[8][7]

In the early presidential election of January 10, 2021, he won with 79.2 percent of the vote (79.18 percent in the preliminary data of the Central Commission for Elections and Referendums); turnout was below 40 percent. In a referendum held the same day, more than 84 percent of those voting supported a presidential system of government.⁠[2][9][3][10][6]

The final report of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission, published on June 4, 2021, found that the election was well organized and that fundamental freedoms were generally respected, but that the campaign was dominated by one candidate who benefited from disproportionately large financial means and from misuse of administrative resources, resulting in an uneven playing field; that linking the presidential election to a simultaneous constitutional referendum weakened both the election process and public debate; and that an overall lack of critical media reporting limited voters’ ability to make an informed choice. The report made 25 recommendations.⁠[11][6]

On January 28, 2021, at the age of 52, he was sworn in as President of the Kyrgyz Republic at the National Philharmonic Hall in Bishkek in a low-key ceremony because of the coronavirus; with his hand on the constitution he pledged to “preserve the integrity of the people and the security of the country.”⁠[6][10]

In his inaugural speech he called on political groups, ethnic groups, non-governmental and religious organizations and his opponents to unite, pledged a multipronged foreign policy naming Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as major partners, said he dreamed that Kyrgyzstan would become “economically developed, dynamic, strong and free,” and called the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz citizens to live and work in Russia a “tragedy.”⁠[6][10]

Vladimir Putin was among the first leaders to congratulate him on his election, and a cabinet official said his first foreign trip as president would be to Russia.⁠[6][10]

Earlier in the week of his inauguration, two of his election challengers, Abdil Segizbayev and Kursan Asanov, were detained by law enforcement: Segizbayev, who had been national security chief at the time of his arrest in 2017, on abuse-of-office charges, and Asanov, who had proclaimed himself acting interior minister during the unrest that brought him to power, over his alleged role in seizing the interior ministry building.⁠[10]

On April 11, 2021, a new constitution was approved in a referendum in which 36.65 percent of eligible voters took part. It allows a president up to two five-year terms; the 2010 constitution had allowed a single six-year term.⁠[3]

On May 7, 2021, the Oktyabr district court in Bishkek fined Centerra Gold’s subsidiary Kumtor Gold Company 261.7 billion soms (about $3.2 billion) in a suit brought by four individuals over alleged illegal dumping and other environmental violations. The same day parliament passed a bill allowing the government to impose “external management” on mining concession holders found to have violated environmental or safety rules. Within two weeks he signed the bill into law despite Centerra Gold’s objections and threats of arbitration; the government then imposed external management on Kumtor, and Centerra Gold lost control of the mine.⁠[12][13]

In June 2021, on a visit to Naryn Region, he pledged to create a development fund into which 0.6 percent of the Kumtor Gold Company’s gross profit would be deposited each year; this drew some complaints, as the mine lies not in Naryn but in neighboring Issyk-Kul Region.⁠[12]

On April 4, 2022, the Kyrgyz government announced an out-of-court settlement with Centerra Gold over Kumtor: the state-owned company Kyrgyzaltyn would return its 26 percent stake in Centerra Gold in exchange for full ownership of the Kumtor Gold Company and would retain the mine’s income earned after May 15, 2021; Centerra Gold would pay $50 million for the preservation and protection of the Kyrgyz Republic’s natural resources, a payment that also settled its outstanding loan to the Kumtor Gold Company; and the parties would end all legal proceedings in every jurisdiction with no admission of liability. In a live address to the nation that day he hailed the agreement as “a historic breakthrough” and said: “It is no exaggeration to say that today is a true turning point in the history of our country.”⁠[14][13]

The agreement was conditional on approval by Centerra Gold’s shareholders and on the full and final release of all claims of the parties. In May 2022 a court in Bishkek canceled the lower court’s May 2021 ruling fining the Kumtor Gold Company. That month he wrote in a Facebook post that the Accounts Chamber would check the activities at the mine and issue a public report.⁠[12]

At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping he paid a state visit to China in February 2025; the dates announced by Xinhua on February 3 were February 4–7. On the morning of February 5, Xi held talks with him at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing; the two heads of state signed a joint statement of the People’s Republic of China and the Kyrgyz Republic on deepening their comprehensive strategic partnership for a new era, and witnessed the signing of a cooperation plan on jointly building the Belt and Road and of cooperation documents in fields including foreign affairs, economy and trade, and agriculture. In the talks he said Kyrgyzstan was willing to learn from China’s development experience, that China was a reliable friend and partner of Kyrgyzstan, and that Kyrgyzstan would continue to firmly support China on issues concerning Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong; he also said he was willing to build the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan railway with China and to strengthen cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the China–Central Asia mechanism.⁠[15][4]

On March 13, 2025, he and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon signed a border treaty in Bishkek covering the roughly 970-kilometer border that had been in dispute. Kyrgyz and Tajik forces had fought a six-day conflict beginning in September 2022 that left hundreds dead and displaced tens of thousands in Kyrgyzstan, after which transport links were suspended.⁠[16]

On the day of the signing two border checkpoints reopened in an online ceremony, and road, rail and air links began to reopen. Under the treaty the village of Dostuk passed entirely to Tajikistan, and a framework was agreed for sharing water from the Golovnoi intake on the Ak-Suu river (the Isfara in Tajik usage). He dismissed one lawmaker’s criticism of the deal as “pure demagoguery.”⁠[16]

He announced on X that Kyrgyzstan’s National Investment Agency had signed a memorandum with Changpeng ZhaoChangpeng ZhaoChangpeng Zhao (commonly abbreviated CZ) is a Canadian entrepreneur and the founder and former chief executive officer of Binance. He entered the Bitcoin industry with a background in trading-systems engineering and founded Binance in 2017; in 2023 he pleaded guilty in the United States to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program and resigned, personally bearing a $50 million criminal fine and a $150 million CFTC civil penalty, while Binance as a company separately bore billions of dollars in criminal and regulatory settlements; he served four months in prison in 2024 and received a U.S. presidential pardon in 2025. Since then he has mainly been involved in education, investment, and advisory work on digital asset policy.Open the full entry, under which Zhao would provide technical expertise and consulting services; he said the cooperation aimed at strengthening technological infrastructure, implementing innovative solutions and preparing highly qualified specialists in blockchain technologies, virtual asset management and cybersecurity. Zhao responded in an X post on April 3, 2025.⁠[17]

The Times of Central Asia states that under the memorandum the National Investment Agency had signed with Changpeng Zhao, BinanceBinanceBinance is a global digital asset trading and multi-asset financial platform launched in 2017 and co-founded by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He. Its business has expanded from spot trading to derivatives, wallets, payments, a public blockchain ecosystem, market data, traditional securities, and artificial intelligence interfaces; its history also includes security incidents, regulatory enforcement across multiple jurisdictions, a 2023 U.S. criminal settlement, and subsequent compliance restructuring.Open the full entry would help develop blockchain infrastructure, create a national cryptocurrency reserve and train professionals in blockchain technology, virtual asset management and cybersecurity.⁠[18]

On May 3, 2025, he met Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in Cholpon-Ata; they discussed the development of virtual assets and blockchain technology in Kyrgyzstan, cybersecurity and the fight against digital threats. He said Kyrgyzstan was “taking serious steps to introduce digital assets” and noted that a law on the digital som had recently been signed; Zhao expressed readiness to support Kyrgyzstan’s digital transition and offered to train local specialists involved in developing and implementing the digital som.⁠[19][18]

At the end of the meeting he presented Changpeng Zhao with a certificate appointing him public adviser to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic on issues related to the development of digital assets.⁠[19][18]

On May 4, 2025, he chaired the first meeting of the National Council for the Development of Virtual Assets and Blockchain Technologies in Cholpon-Ata. The council is charged with forming a unified state policy on virtual assets, with priorities including financial literacy, combating cyber fraud, cybersecurity and introducing blockchain into public administration. Kyrgyzstan has had a law on virtual assets since 2022.⁠[20][18]

Changpeng Zhao and Binance’s regional director Kirill Khomyakov joined the council as new members at the meeting; Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliyev and Kamchybek Tashiyev, head of the State Committee for National Security, also spoke. He said cryptocurrencies and digital assets were becoming the basis of the country’s new financial system and that “Interest in cryptocurrency is growing every year in Kyrgyzstan.” At the end of the meeting the National Investment Agency and Binance signed a memorandum of understanding; the agency had already begun working with Binance and BNB ChainBNB ChainBNB Chain is a multichain blockchain ecosystem with BNB as its native asset. Its core includes the Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible BNB Smart Chain, the opBNB layer-2 network and the decentralized storage network BNB Greenfield; its history traces to Binance Chain, launched in 2019.Open the full entry to study international experience and develop standards.⁠[20][18]

On October 6, 2025, he met Binance’s Global Chief Marketing Officer, Rachel Conlan, to discuss the development of the digital economy. It was stated that the secretariat of the National Council for the Development of Virtual Assets and Blockchain Technologies was working on the launch of KGST, a new digital asset pegged to the som; that the National Bank, together with the government, was developing the digital som, a demo version of which was already operating in test mode; and that integration of the digital som with KGST is envisioned to expand its use domestically and in international settlements. Rachel Conlan said Binance’s wide partner network and large user base could help promote the project.⁠[21]

On October 24, 2025, the National Council for the Development of Virtual Assets and Blockchain Technologies met in Bishkek with his participation; Binance founder Changpeng Zhao also took part. He instructed the Ministry of Economy and Commerce to keep improving the legal framework for virtual assets; the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Innovation to submit proposals on digital and financial literacy and on training specialists in artificial intelligence and blockchain; the State Committee for National Security, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other agencies to hold interdepartmental consultations and decide on uniform security and risk-management standards; the council’s secretariat to ensure the launch of the KGST stablecoin, consider listing it on international platforms and submit proposals for a state cryptocurrency reserve within two months; and the National Bank to begin pilot testing of the digital som platform.⁠[22]

In November 2025 Kyrgyzstan held snap parliamentary elections under rules approved in June 2025 that ended election by party lists in favor of elections in constituencies; Shairbek Tashiyev received the most votes of any candidate. By the time of these elections, 27 of the 90 deputies elected in 2021 had stepped down or been forced out. A week before the vote, several leaders of the Social Democrats were detained on charges of plotting “mass unrest.”⁠[3]

On February 9, 2026, 75 former officials and public figures called on him and Speaker Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu to set a date for a snap presidential election; on February 10 five of the signatories were detained.⁠[3]

On February 10, 2026, he dismissed Kamchybek Tashiyev as head of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB), saying it was “in the interests of our state, in order to prevent a split in society, including between government structures.” Kamchybek Tashiyev, who was in Germany when the decision was announced, said his dismissal “came as a complete surprise to me.” The same day three GKNB deputy chairmen were dismissed, the secretary of the Security Council was placed above the head of the GKNB, the Border Guard Service was moved under the president, and he created an investigative committee reporting directly to him.⁠[3]

Kamchybek Tashiyev returned on February 13 and met him on February 15, when he said Tashiyev would not receive a state post; Tashiyev left Kyrgyzstan “temporarily” on February 17 and, after returning on March 19, was questioned as a witness by the Interior Ministry in a corruption investigation involving Kyrgyzneftegaz.⁠[3]

On February 17, 2026, he asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the next presidential election. The court ruled that the six-year term he began on January 28, 2021, under the 2010 constitution must be completed in its original length, as the five-year term in Article 67 of the 2021 constitution does not apply to a mandate that began earlier; that term counts as his first under the two-term limit of the 2021 constitution, so he may stand for a second five-year term. The ruling set the next regular presidential election for the fourth Sunday of January 2027, January 24, to be called by parliament by September 24, 2026; an early election is possible only on the grounds listed in Article 72, Part 1, of the 2021 constitution: voluntary resignation, removal from office, inability to serve because of illness, or death.⁠[23][3]

On August 16, 2026, in an interview with the journalist Ali Toktakunov, he confirmed that he would seek a second term, saying “I intend to run for another term and continue my work,” and, of other candidates, “We will not restrict anyone.” He said his original plan had been to rule for six years and not run in 2027, and that if Kamchybek Tashiyev had been ready, gained experience and started working well, he would have made him president.⁠[24]

In July 2026 a court found Kamchybek Tashiyev and seven others guilty of preparing to seize power by force and gave them probation; that month Tashiyev said he would not run in the election and would support the incumbent. On August 13 prosecutors asked an appeals court to impose nine-year prison sentences on each of the eight.⁠[24]

On September 5, 2026, the presidential press service announced the decisions of the third session of the National Council for Virtual Assets and Blockchain Technologies: he ordered the National Bank to develop a baseline digital som platform and pilot-test it by December 31, 2026, to begin testing in real conditions in 2027 and then to deploy it gradually nationwide. The session was also shown a new platform moving the licensing and state supervision of virtual assets to a digital format, and discussed the development and use of the KGST stablecoin, approaches to taxing virtual-asset activities, and the risks that international sanctions and restrictions could pose to Kyrgyzstan’s virtual-asset market.⁠[25]

On September 24, 2026, the Jogorku Kenesh set the regular presidential election for January 27, 2027; the Constitutional Court’s ruling of February 2026 had given the date as January 24, 2027.⁠[9][23][24]

On November 10, 2026, he applied to the Central Election Commission to run as a self-nominated candidate. As of that day six people had applied: Aimen Kasenov, Akai Kydyrov, Azamat Esenbekov, Iskhak Masaliev, Siyymyk Zhapykeev and himself. Applying does not amount to registration as a candidate: an applicant must collect at least 30,000 voter signatures (gathered electronically through the Tunduk portal), confirm proficiency in the state language and pay an electoral deposit of 1 million soms.⁠[9]

Under the election timetable, nomination applications closed at 24:00 on November 12, registration documents were due by December 13, and the Central Election Commission must complete candidate registration by December 23, 2026, when campaigning begins; campaigning ends at 08:00 on January 26, 2027, twenty-four hours before the vote.⁠[9]

He studied at the Academy of Physical Culture and Sport in Frunze (now Bishkek) and later earned a law degree from the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in Bishkek. Xinhua’s 2025 profile states that he graduated from the Kyrgyz State Institute of Physical Culture in 1991 and from the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in 2006.⁠[1][4]

His wife, Aigul Asanbaeva, was born in the village of San-Tash in the Tyup district of Issyk-Kul Region; she trained at a medical college and later earned a higher degree in education from Arabaev Kyrgyz State University. The two lived in neighboring villages and met on an outing in the countryside with friends, when she was 18 and he was 23; they married after three years together. While he was in prison she defended him publicly in the media and took part in protests.⁠[2][5]

Aigul Asanbaeva has said they have four children of their own and also raised the son of one of his younger brothers, who died with his wife in a car accident. Kaktus.media states that they have four children, the sons Dastan, Rustam and Nurdoolot and the daughter Zhanaiym, and that Rustam is the second son; Forbes Kazakhstan lists the children as Dastan, Rustam, Rinat, Nurdoolot and Zhanaiym and notes that reports differ on whether he has four or five children.⁠[2][5]

Kaktus.media lists his siblings as Sabyr, Raikul, Davletbek, Saltanat, Orozbek, Askarbek, Raikhan and Gulbara.⁠[5]