Hard times for Central Asia's gangsters and kingmakers

Once powerful behind-the-scenes operators keep getting arrested or killed. Are governments draining the swamp, or just shoring up their own authority?

This has been a terrible few months for gangsters and shady kingmakers in Central Asia.

If they aren’t getting killed, they’re being arrested.

This week it was the turn of Rayimbek Matraimov, once an untouchable figure who used his wealth and influence to pull the strings from behind the scenes in Kyrgyzstan. He made his riches — hundreds of millions of d…