Journalists from Kyrgyz media outlets Kloop and Temirov Live have found that Kanybek Tumanbaev, Kyrgyzstan’s chief administrator of presidential affairs — one of President Sadyr Japarov’s closest associates and the de facto head of a presidential state corporation — has held a Russian passport since 2006. The Insider verified this information and can confirm its accuracy. The official’s dual citizenship could violate as many as three national laws.
Tumanbaev’s Russian citizenship and the risk of legal violations
On July 23, the investigative outlet Kloop, along with Temirov Live journalist Bolot Temirov, published a joint investigation into the dual citizenship of Kanybek Tumanbaev, who has served as Kyrgyzstan’s chief administrator of presidential affairs since May 2022. The Insider cross-checked the information against two independent sets of leaked Russian database records.
According to both sources, in April 2006 Kanybek Turgunbekovich Tumanbaev received a Russian passport issued by the Department of Internal Affairs of Volgograd’s Traktorozavodsky district. In June 2018, Tumanbaev obtained a new passport from the Russian Federal Migration Service office for Krasnodar Krai in the city of Anapa; this document remains valid at present. Therefore, Tumanbaev had held Russian citizenship long before he rose to prominence in Kyrgyz politics.
Neither the Kyrgyz Presidential Administration nor Tumanbaev himself responded to journalists’ inquiries about the existence of a second citizenship and the grounds on which it was obtained. Notably, for a Presidential Property Management official, holding a Russian passport contradicts three separate provisions of Kyrgyz law:
- Article 38 of the Constitution prohibits citizens serving in political and ad hoc state positions from holding another citizenship;
- Article 22 of the Law on Citizenship prohibits persons holding another citizenship from occupying senior positions in state bodies; this article also requires citizens to notify the authorities of the existence of a second citizenship;
- Article 15 of the Law on State Civil Service and Municipal Service reiterates the prohibition on persons holding foreign citizenship from occupying senior positions.
Journalists emphasize that concealment of foreign citizenship constitutes legal grounds for dismissal from one’s position.
Who is Kanybek Tumanbaev and why does his passport matter?
Tumanbaev has managed to develop his career under three different Kyrgyz presidents. Before Sadyr Japarov came to power, Tumanbaev was affiliated with ex-president Almazbek Atambayev (in 2015, Tumanbaev ran for parliament on Atambayev’s Social Democratic Party ticket, and he later took part in the 2020 elections on the Birimdik party ticket of ex-president Sooronbay Jeenbekov. In October 2020, when Jeenbekov was replaced by Sadyr Japarov amid protests, Tumanbaev quickly found a place on the new president’s team — in May 2022, Japarov appointed Tumanbaev chief administrator of presidential affairs.
From that point on, according to the journalistic investigation, the Kyrgyz Presidential Administration (PA) was transformed from a merely administrative body into something resembling a family state corporation. In 2021, entities subordinate to the PA generated revenue of 770.9 million soms ($8.8 million); however, by the end of 2025 that figure had exploded to a total of 14.138 billion soms ($161.7 million). The PA reports directly to the president and has broad spending powers — the administration may use its budget for its own needs without routing it through standard budget procedures.
Tumanbaev was entrusted with overseeing Japarov’s most high-profile and costly projects: the construction of a new presidential palace, a new airport, and the extension of the runway in Karakol, along with the development of tourist infrastructure in Ala-Archa National Park and of residential districts in Bishkek. Journalists from the OCCRP, Kloop, and Temirov Live identified at least 11 such projects, six of which cost $137 million — with most bypassing open competitive tenders. According to a source familiar with the PA’s operations, Tumanbaev himself effectively controls the contractors on these projects via nominee directors and shell company owners, some of whom are linked to Japarov’s inner circle.
At the same time, the PA has been accumulating new assets and powers, taking control of land, parks, entire enterprises, and even the dissolved Ministry of Digital Development. Today the PA controls more than 30 subordinate organizations whose remit encompasses mortgage construction, civil registration, printing of passports and banknotes, the issuance of driving licenses, and the monitoring of internet traffic nationwide.
It is precisely this concentration of assets and powers in Tumanbaev’s hands that triggered concerns about his Russian passport — the official who has gained significant influence over one of Kyrgyzstan’s most opaque and fast-growing government entities happens to be a Russian citizen.
The investigation was published against a backdrop of intense pressure on independent journalists inside the country. In October 2025, a court ruled that materials from Temirov Live, Kloop.kg and Ayt Ayt Dese were “extremist” and banned the outlets’ activities in the country. Eleven current and former journalists from the project were charged with incitement to mass disorder, and two of them were sentenced to jail terms. Subsequently, one of them, Azamat Ishenbekov, was released on a presidential pardon.
