Turmoil in the Biškek government: High level removals and returns in ministries

A flurry of cascading appointments announced abruptly on social media. Health Minister who wanted to treat the Coronavirus with herbal infusions in open dispute with local medical luminaries and the deputy who wanted a law against fake news identical to Moscow's regain posts.

Bishkek (AsiaNews) - The political turbulence of Kyrgyzstan has once again been made evident by a small earthquake at the government level, which some ministers and high officials unexpectedly paid the price for.

Without any prior inkling, on the morning of September 7th it appeared on social networks that Talantbek Imanov had left the position of Minister of Digital Development, and some other rather surprising replacements were made known as a result.

The information in this regard was not immediately confirmed at the official level, and only the following day it became known that Imanov had been sent to replace the director of the National Investment Agency at the Presidency, Nurie Kutnaeva, who in turn had been transferred to the Ministry of Finance as director of the "Centre for Electronic Cooperation" with the provisional status of "acting". The necessary approval by the Žogorku Keneš, the parliament of Bishkek, was evidently only a formality left to later times.

As soon as he took office, Imanov immediately replaced the operational director Umbriel Temiraliev, responsible for external investments, also with the formula of "transfer to another function", although it is not known what this is. It should be noted that Imanov had recently become quite well known to the public for his relations with Alexei Širšov, a key figure in the corruption scandals in the energy sphere.

The Minister of Education and Science, Kanybek Imanaliev (in office only since February), was then also transferred to another position, with the explanation of "inadequate compliance with the professional functions assigned to him".

The specific cause of this decision was not explained, although it is assumed that it may be linked to the resonance due to the shortage of school textbooks that occurred when students returned to classrooms. It's not actually a new problem, but complaints about it have been much more widespread this year. His deputy Ulanbek Usekov was appointed in his place.

Instead, Alykmadyr Bejšenaliev, known for his original and somewhat questionable initiatives, such as the idea of treating the coronavirus with infusions of weeds such as poisonous aconite, has returned to occupy the post of health minister.

He was appointed in October 2020, to leave the position at the end of summer 2022, after a tense fight with some luminaries of Kyrgyz medicine, such as Sabyrbek Džumabekov and Almazbek Ismankulov, and the director of the national cardiology center Akpaj Sarybaev, who he dismissed on the spot together with other authoritative scientists, even boasting of "having killed a hundred".

Seven proceedings were opened against him for abuse of office, all of which ended in vain, as he returned to the ministry after a year spent directing a rehabilitation center for disabled children.

However, her temporary replacement, Gulnara Baatyrova, was not left without a job, moving to the position of Minister of Labor and Migration, parallel to that of health. Her chair was left to her by Kudajbergen Bazarbaev, he is in search of better luck.

The appointment of former MP Gyulšat Asylbaeva as head of the Anti-Monopoly Service of the Ministry of Economy and Trade also caused a certain stir, after having resigned due to the strong reactions against her proposed law against fake news, copied by the similar one in Russia and approved with rather impositional methods by the Žogorku Keneš in 2021.

One of the tools with which the power system led by the president controls free information in Kyrgyzstan, a restless land of political upheavals and ministerial carousels.