A nephew of Kyrgyzstan’s just lately dismissed safety chief Kamchybek Tashiev was reportedly detained in reference to a corruption case involving state-owned Kyrgyzneftegaz. The alleged corruption was uncovered in a video report produced by the State Tax Service.
However the sordid story is way from new: In 2022 Kyrgyz investigative outlet Temirov Stay reported on precisely the identical schemes, incomes founder Bolor Temirov the direct ire of the state, in the end main to the revocation of his citizenship and his deportation. The strain didn’t cease in 2022, however has continued. Temirov Stay was declared extremist by a Kyrgyz court docket in October 2025.
On March 16, the Kyrgyz State Tax Service’s PR division launched an investigation titled “Oil for Their Personal: How Kyrgyzneftegaz Was Ruined,” which alleged that during the last 5 years Kyrgyzneftegaz misplaced over 4 billion soms (round $45.7 million) in numerous shadowy schemes. The allegedly pilfered funds, the State Tax Service claimed, ended up within the pockets of relations and shut associates of Tashiev.
This system outlined three schemes: the writing off of 29,000 tons of oil as “manufacturing losses,” far in extra of typical losses; the diversion of crude oil to non-public corporations earlier than being bought again to the state oil refinery, the Kyrgyz Petroleum Firm; and eventually the promoting of petroleum merchandise by way of a choose assortment of personal corporations.
Inside a day, the Ministry of Inside Affairs Investigative Service introduced it had opened a legal corruption case. On March 18, 4 individuals have been detained: the previous chairman of the board of JSC Kyrgyzneftegaz, Nurgazy Nishanov; the previous deputy chairman of the board, Ruslan Altymyshev; and the administrators of two affiliated corporations, Area Oil and the Kyrgyz Petroleum Firm (itself a subsidiary of Kyrgyzneftegaz), Nazgul Aidarova and Baigazy Matisakov, respectively.
Matisakov is Tashiev’s nephew. One other of Tashiev’s nephews, Baigazy’s brother Nurgazy, was reportedly dismissed from his submit as head of the transport prosecutor’s workplace in mid-February.
Earlier than the arrests, media studies claimed that Tashiev’s son, Tai-Muras Tashiev, had been summoned for questioning. RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Azattyk, reported that the Ministry of Inside Affairs “neither confirmed nor denied this info.”
Tai-Muras – who’s listed because the founding father of Moka Group in authorities information – had taken to Fb on March 17 to reply to the State Tax Service’s investigation, taking concern with its description of Moka Group’s enterprise. Tai-Muras disputed the State Tax Service’s allegation that Moka Group had acquired a monopoly over the Kyrgyz Petroleum Firm by shopping for all of its diesel gas provides and shutting out different consumers.
In gentle of the elder Tashiev’s sudden dismissal in February, and his distinguished position in each the administration’s anti-corruption marketing campaign and the crackdown on media, it’s troublesome to learn this flip of occasions as something however a purging of Tashiev’s allies, a curbing of his monetary flows.
Tashiev himself seems entrance and heart in promotional supplies for the State Tax Service’s video report.
Promotional materials with the title of the State Tax Service’s investigation – “Oil for Their Personal: How Kyrgyzneftegaz Was Ruined” – that includes Kamshybek Tashiev within the center and his son, Tai-Muras, on the far proper.
State Tax Service Head Almambet Shykmamatov instructed journalists that in Tashiev’s time as chairman of the State Committee for Nationwide Safety (SCNS), “Kyrgyzneftegaz was utterly underneath the management of the State Committee for Nationwide Safety…. It was not possible to audit Kyrgyzneftegaz. Now the tax authorities have the chance – we performed an audit and investigation. There have been two choices: both make it public or conceal it. We determined to make it public.”
As scholar Aksana Ismailbekova wrote in Might 2024 for The Diplomat, the Japarov-Tashiev tandem had one essential power: “Its capability to build up cash and use that cash to safe energy, and never simply by easy bribery.”
Ismailbekova’s conclusion is price pondering because the State Tax Service’s allegations spiral into probably legal trials:
Cash serves to bolster the tandem’s cohesion, but it additionally holds the potential for future battle. Though each Japarov and Tashiev seem like benefiting from their friendship, there are already rumors that counsel the tandem isn’t so stable. Presently, cash amounting to billions (from numerous sources similar to racketeering, customs, transportation, commerce, and vitality) is flowing into their coffers, however this dynamic could shift sooner or later.
In the mean time, and regardless of the rumors, the attract of wealth motivates each Japarov and Tashiev to take care of a facade of unity and protect their collective energy by way of efficiency of that unity. Whereas cash at present bolsters their authority, it additionally poses a looming risk to their future stability.
The subsequent step is to carefully monitor the trajectory of the tandem, the tensions and disagreements inside its networks, and the efficiency of “friendship” between the tandem’s two heads. [Anthropologist Marshall] Sahlins’ modes of destructive reciprocity have, to date, introduced a type of stability and safety with tandem rule in Kyrgyzstan.
Who can actually say whether or not that stability will final endlessly?
Who can say, certainly.
