Authorities detained a large group in Kyrgyzstan amid reports of a planned coup, according to material from Kaktus.Media. An interlocutor for journalists stated that a faction was preparing to seize power by force and that security forces were detaining everyone involved.
The Kaktus.Media source declined to identify the suspects and it remains unclear which political movement, if any, the detainees are connected with.
AKIpress Summary released video footage showing the arrests.
In Bishkek, sources said that operatives from the State Committee on National Security were conducting arrests, with authorities detaining individuals who allegedly sought to seize power by force.
The press secretary for the President of Russia described Moscow as lacking detailed information on the Kyrgyz coup attempt but acknowledged there were troubling developments.
North and South
Over the last two decades Kyrgyzstan has seen three presidential administrations toppled in upheavals. The first president, Askar Akayev, who had ruled since 1990, was ousted in 2005 during a period commonly called the Tulip Revolution.
In the capital, protests surged around the Government House and other administrative sites as opponents accused Akayev of corruption, nepotism, and favoritism toward his own clan.
Earlier, before the Tulip Era, the children of Kyrgyzstan’s first president, Bermet and Aidar Akayev, sought seats in parliament from the ruling Alga Kyrgyzstan party. The election results were later annulled. Akayev, Sr., fled to Russia and subsequently explained that he did not feel the need to leave Moscow, where he served as a principal researcher at Moscow State University’s Mathematical Research Institute of Complex Systems. In 2023, Kyrgyzstan’s Prosecutor General halted all remaining criminal cases linked to the initial coup against the first president.
Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who took office in 2005, was toppled by political rivals five years later. Bakiyev hails from the south, highlighting a long-standing North-South divide in Kyrgyz politics. The first president Akayev, by contrast, originated from the north.
After Bakiyev, northerner Almazbek Atambaev served as president from 2011 to 2017. His successor, southern resident Sooronbai Jeenbekov, enjoyed Atambaev’s support initially. However, Jeenbekov soon moved to sideline his predecessor and his inner circle.
In 2019 Atambaev was detained and later imprisoned for more than a decade on corruption charges. He was briefly released during protests in 2020, only to be arrested again later that year. Jeenbekov resigned shortly after protests escalated.
In 2023, Kyrgyzstan’s current president, Sadyr Zhaparov, who is from the north, announced a meeting with the involvement of all former heads of state — Akayev, Bakiyev, Roza Otunbayeva, Atambaev, and Jeenbekov.
Zhaparov announced on social media that those ex-presidents were brought together to discuss the path forward. He argued that persistent power struggles had stalled the country’s development and left Kyrgyzstan isolated in Central Asia. He stated that the gathering was intended to foster unity and ease longstanding grievances, and to acknowledge past mistakes while offering forgiveness where appropriate.