** Power Plays in Central Asia:
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** State Capture, Weaponized Anti-Corruption,
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** and the Rules of Doing Business
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Central Asia is often viewed through the prism of Western geopolitical competition with Russia. But there’s much more going on than that: While promising reform and modernization, political heavyweights jockey for power. Assets and opportunities are captured by well-connected elites. Independent voices face growing repression. Meanwhile, China’s influence looms ever larger.

Kyrgyzstan offers a stark case: its security service spent years seizing businesses, nationalizing assets, and extracting "voluntary" payments — all in the name of fighting crime and corruption. Then its architect, once the country's untouchable co-ruler, was convicted and pushed out. But the apparatus he built remains intact.

This Briefing looks past the personalities to the machinery: how "anti-corruption" becomes a tool of consolidating power; the role of mineral and energy resources, the new economies of sanction circumvention — and what policymakers, finance professionals, and anyone else with an interest in this crucial region should watch for ahead.


** Speakers
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Leila Nazgül Seiitbek is a human rights lawyer and chairwoman of Freedom for Eurasia, a Vienna-based organization she founded after fleeing political persecution in Kyrgyzstan. It investigates high-level corruption across Central Asia and documents how authoritarian governments use criminal and financial charges to silence their critics.

Eldiyar Arykbaev is an investigative journalist at OCCRP from Kyrgyzstan, with more than 15 years in the field. He leads investigations across Central Asia, exposing corruption, smuggling schemes, and abuse of power among senior officials and business elites. He previously served as editor-in-chief at the Kyrgyz outlet Kloop.

Kristian Lasslett is Professor of Criminology at the Ulster University, where he researches how state and corporate power intersect to drive corruption, kleptocracy, and land-grabbing. He has carried out extensive fieldwork in Central Asia, sits on the executive board of the International State Crime Initiative, and co-founded the research center UzInvestigations.

Ilya Lozovsky is a senior editor at OCCRP, where he covers the intersection of corruption and democracy across Central Asia, Russia, and the Caucasus. He edits cross-border investigations and has worked on major OCCRP projects exposing smuggling and money laundering in Kyrgyzstan. He is based in Amsterdam.


** Wednesday, Sept 30, 2026
6 a.m. PDT / 9 a.m. EDT / 3 p.m. CEST
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