In the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, about 200 people work in shifts to search through the ash dump of a heating plant. Desperately poor, they are looking for unburned pieces of coal to sell. It’s hard work, but the only way to make a living for many of them during the winter
More than a dozen girls from a remote village in Kyrgyzstan are shattering gender stereotypes by taking to the ice as their nation’s first all-female hockey team
Parliamentarian Janar Akayev summed up the general disgust over the country’s corruption battle when he complained, during a November 21 session of parliament, that “a bribe was stolen by [different] bribe-takers.”
In southern Kyrgyzstan, entire regions live off illegal coal mining. The work is dangerous. Six miners died in an accident in October. But locals say there is no other work for the region’s men
Asanov was also targeted in less direct ways. In the evening of August 13, a video began to circulate on the WhatsApp messaging app. The video alleged that Asanov had cut a secret deal with Atambayev. Following these confidential exchanges, Asanov is alleged to have been given a pink carrier bag emblazoned with the word Monaco