Internet providers in Kyrgyzstan started blocking the website of the local OCCRP partner, Kloop, on Wednesday, after editors refused to delete anarticle that authorities claimed contained false information.

Raimbek Matraimov, a shadowy Kyrgyz political operator, has long denied his ties to Khabibula Abdukadyr, the secretive tycoon who made millions in alleged smuggling with his help. In 2021, his son married Khabibula’s daughter.

Just hours after Kyrgyzstan’s head of national security declared on Thursday that no company in his country has violated U.S. sanctions against Russia, the U.S. Treasury announced sanctions against four Kyrgyz firms for doing exactly that.

A Kyrgyz court approved an agreement on Wednesday that allows the local branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) to resume its work in the country, nine months after the government shut it down due to a video officials disliked.

Around 120 activists, journalists and leaders of civil society organizations signed a petition Friday demanding that Kyrgyz authorities dismiss a draft law closelymodeled on Russia's controversial foreign agent law. Six members of Parliament haveasked for their names to be taken off the draft law.

A group of MPs in Kyrgyzstan has proposed a draft bill closely copying Russia's notorious foreign agent law. If passed, experts believe the new legislation will cripple civil society in the Central Asian nation.

A district court in Bishkek upheld on Thursday the request of Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Culture to shut down the Kyrgyz branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Azattyk. The dispute erupted over a video the government did not like.

For years, the Abdukadyr family’s self-confessed money launderer sent their money abroad using a variety of invented pretexts. Some U.S. bank officers got suspicious — but the transactions continued.

After serving less than two years of his 11-year sentence for corruption, former President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev was released and left on Wednesday to Spain for medical treatment although there are still outstanding charges against him.

Kyrgyz authorities have ordered independent media outlet Kloop to delete a news article they allege to contain false information or face having their website blocked. The threat comes in the context of a broader attack on independent media in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyz authorities asked a court on Monday to permanently ban Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, from the country because the outlet’s description of the Kyrgyz-Tajik conflict is not in line with the government’s narrative.

A Kyrgyz investigative journalist who has published stories about high-level corruption in the country was apparently deported today, minutes after a court ruled against him.

On October 26, Kyrgyz authorities blocked the website of Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, for a period of two months. The reason was a story about new clashes on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, in which dozens of people died and thousands were forced to temporarily evacuate. Two days ago, Azattyk’s bank accounts were also frozen without clear explanation — by order of the Kyrgyz secret police, Azattyk’s management learned.

A Radio Azattyk reporter covers a protest against corruption in the Kyrgyz customs service in Bishkek in December 2019. (Photo: Gulzhan Turdubayeva/Radio Azattyk)

Kyrgyz authorities have blocked on Wednesday access to the website of the local branch of Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) after the outlet aired a video about the border conflict with Tajikistan that the Kyrgyz Ministry of Culture claims contains fake news and contradicts national interest.

About 300 people marched on Monday through Kyrgyzstan’s capital of Bishkek, demanding the release of activists who protested against a land swap with Uzbekistan in which Kyrgyzstan lost a man-made lake in return for land elsewhere along the undefined border, OCCRP member center Kloop reported.

In Bishkek today, Kyrgyz investigative journalist Bolot Temirov, who faced up to 20 years in prison on a series of charges, was acquitted on most of them.

The government’s initial silence about the export of a record amount of gold to an undisclosed client last year raised eyebrows these days in Kyrgyzstan, where the gold mining industry has been shrouded in secrecy and the largest mine is rumored to be rife with corruption.

Kyrgyzstan’s government, long known as Central Asia’s most democratic, is becoming less and less transparent — and the country’s once-active civil society appears unconcerned.

(Photo: Alina Pechenkina for Kloop)

Kyrgyz police have questioned two editors from independent media outlets after a former opposition lawmaker quoted their sites in his Facebook post about the government’s intention to increase the country’s foreign debt.

Kyrgyz authorities allege Bolot Temirov is a drug user and used falsified identification documents. But case files obtained by reporters suggest a high-level effort led by the GKNB security agency to silence him.