The other president of Kyrgyzstan

He controls the security services, micromanages ministers, and tells soldiers when to marry. Is Kamchybek Tashiyev still President Japarov’s ally? Or his rival in waiting?

At the opening of a new border service compound in Batken, GKNB chief Kamchybek Tashiyev poses with what appears to be an anti-tank missile

Kamchybek Tashiyev is Kyrgyzstan’s tough uncle-in-chief.

That is not his official title. Formally, he goes by head of the State Committee for National Security, or GKNB.

But Tashiyev’s fondness for displays of manliness and colourful remarks makes it evident he is not one to be constrained by bureaucratic discretion or the quiet dignity usually expected of security service chiefs.

Earlier this week, during an inspection of a new GKNB building in the Chatkal district, a remote area of his native Jalalabad region, Tashiyev once again blurred the line between aloof authority and theatre. Touring the facility alongside a member of parliament, Jailoobai Nysanov, Tashiyev wandered into a gym hall. Spotting a boxing bag and sensing an opportunity, he turned to Nysanov with a grin.

“Come on, get your gloves on,” he instructed, in a tone poised between mild threat and jest. “You come to parliament and scold us. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

The MP obliged. As he took his stance and began throwing punches at the bag, Tashiyev adopted the role of corner man.

“Harder,” he barked. “Go for the kidney! The kidney, the kidney. That’s it. Good. Good job!”

The scene, filmed for posterity, was part power play, part pantomime. And it said a great deal about the kind of public image Tashiyev is cultivating: one in which masculinity and loyalty are performed for maximum effect.

Precisely what the ultimate effect is intended to be, however, is not always evident.

Tashiyev’s growing dominance in public life, and the ease with which he overshadows Sadyr Japarov, the president and his longtime ally, risks straining a tandem that has governed Kyrgyzstan as a coordinated front since 2020. At surface scrutiny, the alliance looks solid, but there are those who forecast that a schism will occur sooner or later.