Sooronbay Jeenbekov

Jeenbekov was born in Biy-Myrza, Osh Region on November 16, 1958. His father, Sharif, was a collective farm (kolkhoz) manager while his mother was a housewife.[4] His grandfather Jeenbek Pirnazarov was a Red Army soldier who served during the Great Patriotic War and was labelled as missing in action.[5] Jeenbekov is one of nine siblings in his family, being the third eldest child. Jeenbekov attended the Kyrgyz Academy of Agriculture, graduating with a degree in zoological engineering. In 2003, he completed further studies, graduating in accounting from the Kyrgyz National Agrarian University.[6]

Prime Minister Jeenbekov with Dmitry Medvedev, and Tigran Sargsyan at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council summit in Bishkek, 7 March 2017.

Jeenbekov started his career at the Lenin School in the Uzgen District, where he worked as a teacher at 18 and taught Russian and literature. In 1983, he became the chief livestock specialist of the Soviet farm in the Soviet district of Osh region and continued to work in the position for about five years. In November 1988, he managed to obtain a job as an instructor in the district committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan in the Soviet district of the Osh region. After a few years, he became the director of the party committee.[7]

After entering politics, in 1993, Jeenbekov was elected chairman of the Kashka-Zhol collective farm in Kara-Kulja District.[8] He became a Deputy of the Assembly of People's Representatives in 1995. In 2007, he became the Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and the Processing Industry. In 2010, he served as the Governor of the Osh region, and in 2015, he was appointed as Director of the State Personnel Service. In March 2016, he was appointed as First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, before his appointment as Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan.[9][10]

Jeenbekov resigned from the post of Prime Minister on 21 August 2017, after being named as an official candidate in the 2017 presidential election. He stated that he "[wanted] to be in an equal position with other presidential candidates."[3]

The election was held on 15 October 2017. Kyrgyzstan's central election commission reported a total of almost 1.7 million votes cast, of which Jeenbekov won 54.74 percent.[11] Jeenbekov's election marks the first democratic transfer of power in a Kyrgyz election. Azay Guliyev confirmed the election to be one of the few peaceful elections in Kyrgyzstan's history.[12]

Jeenbekov with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Sochi, Russia.

Jeenbekov was inaugurated as president on 24 November 2017 in a ceremony that took place in the Enesay reception house of the Ala Archa State Residence.[1] His first presidential decree in office was made to confer the title of Hero of the Kyrgyz Republic to former president Atambayev. Just days into his presidency, Jeenbekov changed the time of his departure to the White House to early in the morning to avoid Bishkek traffic, a move which was praised by many Bishkek residents.[13] He conducted his first foreign visit after assuming the presidency was to Russia where he met with Vladimir Putin.[14] Early into his presidency, he has been accused of undermining the country's democracy by suppressing opposition politicians and journalists.[15] On 19 April 2018, Jeenbekov fired his Prime Minister Sapar Isakov and the government following a vote of no confidence from Kyrgyzstan's parliament.[16]

In an address to journalists in May 2018, Jeenbekov promised to fight against tribalism being imposed on the country saying that "We will take measures against those, who impose a "north-south" issue in the society."[17]

Jeenbekov with Ilham Aliyev

Jeenbekov opened the Central Mosque of Imam Sarakhsi, which is the largest mosque in Central Asia, with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his visit to Bishkek in early September of 2018.[18] During his visit, Erdoğan pressured Jeenbekov to take the appropriate measures to deal with Turkish Islamist leader Fethullah Gülen.[19]

Jeenbekov opened the 2018 World Nomad Games in Cholpon-Ata on September 3, 2018, marking the first major international event that Jeenbekov has hosted in Kyrgyzstan.[20] Receiving Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the Cholpon-Ata State Residence the next day, Jeenbekov thanked the prime minister for becoming the first Hungarian leader to visit the country since its independence.[21] In April 2019, Jeenbekov received Valentina Shevchenko (a professional Kyrgyz–Peruvian mixed martial artist fighter) during her tour of her native Kyrgyzstan, her first visit in seven years. Jeenbekov praised Shevchenko's role in her profession, even going as far as to say that she "defended the honour of our Kyrgyzstan".[22] On May 4 he ordered that all mining of uranium in the country will be banned.[23]

In June 2020, Jeenbekov went into quarintine after returning from a cut-short visit to Moscow after two of his staffers tested positive for Covid-19. He was due to attend the 2020 Moscow Victory Day Parade.[24]

Foreign policy

Jeenbekov with other CSTO leaders at the CSTO summit in Minsk, November 2017.

See also: List of international presidential trips made by Sooronbay Jeenbekov

Jeenbekov's foreign policy has been described as much more balanced that his predecessors. In his inaugural remarks, he vowed to make the Kremlin the country's "main strategic partner" as well as signaled that he will seek more collaborative bilateral ties with China and the European Union. He is noted for repairing relations with neighboring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, following an improvement in ties under Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who took power the year before Jeenbekov, and a diplomatic crisis after Jeenbekov's predecessor, Almazbek Atambayev accused Kazakhstan of election interference and called the Kazakh government under President Nursultan Nazarbayev a "dictatorship".[25] All of this is reflected in the international working and state visits which he makes often, with Jeenbekov visiting Russia and Kazakhstan the most since November 28, 2017.

In an address to the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan in late June 2018, he outlined and made clear that his country will pursue and develop multilateral relations with Turkey, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and the Arab world by the end of his term in 2023.[26] In his first year in office, President Jeenbekov participated in 30 international meetings, where 77 bilateral agreements and 414 multilateral documents were signed. Also during his first year, Kyrgyzstan established diplomatic relations with four foreign countries.[27] In March 2019, Jeenbekov made his remarks during a meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions of Kyrgyzstan that his country had plans to step up work on development of bilateral co-operation with the United States and United Kingdom.[28] The draft of a new co-operation agreement with the United States is currently being reconciled.[29]

During Vladimir Putin's state visit to Bishkek in March 2019, he ordered that a new marble pavilion be created outside the Ala Archa State Residence to provide a sound place for the National Guard to render honors. Since then, he has received Xi Jinping, Khaltmaagiin Battulga, Narendra Modi at the new area. Jeenbekov attended the latter's second swearing-in ceremony in late May in his first visit to the Indian sub-continent.

State visits hosted by Jeenbekov

Date	Country	Visitor	Notes
1 September 2018	Turkey	President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
5 September 2018	Hungary	Prime Minister Viktor Orban	[30]
28 March 2019	Russia	President Vladimir Putin	[31][32]
12 June 2019	Mongolia	President Khaltmaagiin Battulga	[33]
13 June 2019	China	President Xi Jinping	[34]
14 June 2019	India	Prime Minister Narendra Modi	[35]
27-28 November 2019	Kazakhstan	Kassym-Jomart Tokayev	[36]

His wife, Aigul Jeenbekova (née Tokoeva), has been married to Jeenbekov since 1988. Together, they have 2 children, with their eldest daughter, Baktygul, being married and a graduate from the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University. Their younger child is a son named Iman. Jeenbekov's younger brother, Asylbek Jeenbekov, is also a politician, while his other brother, Zhusupbek Sharipov, is a former governor from Jalal-Abad and the current ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Ukraine.[41] Aside from his native Kyrgyz, Jeenbekov is also fluent in Russian.

• Order of Manas (2015)
• Medal of Dank (2011)
• Honored Worker of Agriculture
• Order of Nazarbayev (2019)[42]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sooronbay Jeenbekov.

• "Жээнбеков Сооронбай Шарипович" [Jeenbekov Sooronbay Sharipovich] (in Kyrgyz). Government of the Kyrgyz Republic. Archived from the original on 2016-12-27.