Sanjarbek Kadyraliev, the Speaker of the Kyrgyz Parliament, was “shot to hindhead,” according to Ferghana.ru. The Jamestown Foundation sees this as “yet another” routine political assassination (according to anonymous “Kyrgyz experts”), but this is almost certainly too simplistic a view. While they note that all the recently murdered political figures (that is, post-2005), they also note that, unlike other MPs, Kadyraliev had not publicly supported the opposition—seemingly the only meaningful correlation since lots of corrupt Kyrgyz politicians have not been killed.
It’s possible there is a political angle. Kadyraliev has had his share of political spats, whether over a Parliamentary election scandal during a faceoff with the disgraced MP Mamat Orozbaev, or the murder of Kara-Suu bazaar chief Yrysbek Jooshbekov.
But here’s the weird thing: by all accounts, Kadyraliev is pro-Bakiev. So if his murder is politically motivated, did he switch sides without anyone saying it, or is there a new push to kill pro-government politicians? Otherwise, there isn’t much evidence for why Kadyraliev’s supposed crimial ties made him more murderable than anyone else.
So let’s consider this a bleg: what is going on here? Anyone have some ideas?
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1801 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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the Bishkek grapevine is overwhelmingly positive that the MP was ‘liquadated’ as part of the cover up of Sadyrkulov’s murder.
the fact that Sanjar was used by the ruling family to carry out dirty assignments (i.e. beatings of journalists, extortions, intimidation of politicians, as well as political killings) was well known.
now they say that it was Sanjar and his ‘sportsmen’ aided by the state bodyguard service who ‘took care’ of Sadyrkulov.
It is also well-known that KG’s criminal gangs too often are affiliated with a martial art gymnasium–the belt wrestling/judo gym in Osh, for example. (Bayaman Erkinbaev–himself assassinated in 2005.) My theory–drug trafficking and transport.