A sum in excess of Kyrgyzstani som (KGS) 300bn ($3.4bn) in property assets and funds has been retrieved by the state in the Japarov administration’s five-year fight against corruption, according to Kyrgyzstan’s national security chief, "People's general" Kamchybek Tashiyev.

Tashiyev, who made the claim in an interview with Region TV reported by Azattyk on December 9, has previously asserted that the populist-nationalist government has fought so hard against organised crime that it can no longer be found in the small Central Asian country.

In January this year, Tashiyev rowed back on comments in which he said that he took a decision to eliminate the country’s most notorious organised crime boss, Kamchybek Kolbayev. Kolbayev was in October 2023 shot dead in Bishek’s Blonder Pub by a special Alfa unit of the country’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB). Also in January, Tashiyev reiterated that Kyrgyzstan had become “the only country in Central Asia… and probably in the post-Soviet countries, that does not have organised crime”.

In November, analyst Galiya Ibragimova wrote of how there is growing unease between President Sadyr Japarov and Tashiyev, who often puts himself in the spotlight. She described them as unspoken rivals and said Tashiyev "is rapidly expanding his own authority, which is now starting to exceed that of the president at times".

She added: "In Kyrgyz politics, which is so personalized, this has inevitably sparked rumors that the country’s top security official may have presidential ambitions of his own, and even speculation that the upcoming parliamentary elections [which took place on November 30 –Ed.] could be a rehearsal for a power struggle between Japarov and Tashiyev.”

In his comments on retrieving assets, Tashiyev said more than 1,000 factories and various institutions, as well as more than 30,000 hectares of land, have been taken over by the state.

"Corrupt elements have decreased. Now, at least in state institutions, they are afraid of corruption and are afraid of the law. If we continue to develop this further, society and state bodies will get used to it," he said in the interview.

Many officials and former officials who were detained under the anti-corruption drive were released after paying damages to the state budget.

The 2024 Global Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International (TI), ranked Kyrgyzstan 146th out of 180 countries, with a score of 25 out of 100. In 2023, it ranked 141st with a score of 26. The higher the score, the lower the level of corruption.

Under legislation signed into law on December 31, 2024, anyone convicted under the article "Corruption" is banned from holding public office for life.