Cultural and ideological polarisation is increasingly becoming an important issue, plaguing political life in many countries - including the world’s most advanced democracies. In Kyrgyzstan, this problem has been growing over a long period of time.
Recent events show further polarisation across various segments of Kyrgyz society. The recent assassination of a Chinese businessman in Istanbul with alleged connections to top Kyrgyz officials revealed growing cleavages within Kyrgyz society. These events demonstrate the absence of a constructive dialogue which could bridge the divide between different social groups. Political forces in Kyrgyzstan increasingly foster polarisation with a view to instrumentalising these divisions for their own benefits. In turn, this is reinforced by conspiracy theories and fake news, and complemented by cyber-attacks against investigative journalists.
These cleavages have been recently exacerbated by the murder of Chinese businessman Aierken Saimaiti in Istanbul, who apparently had strong connections to former president Almazbek Atambayev and current president Sooronbai Jeenbekov, as well as Raim Matraimov, an allegedly central figure in a large-scale money-laundering case. The latter has triggered hot debates on the political division between Kyrgyzstan’s southern and northern regions.
