{"id":4802,"date":"2021-01-04T19:02:20","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=146054"},"modified":"2021-01-04T19:02:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:02:20","slug":"the-curious-case-of-bishkeks-1-million-deal-with-ex-israeli-intelligence-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/04\/the-curious-case-of-bishkeks-1-million-deal-with-ex-israeli-intelligence-worker\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curious Case Of Bishkek’s $1 Million Deal With Ex-Israeli Intelligence Worker"},"content":{"rendered":"
Confusion and intrigue have reigned in Kyrgyzstan since compromised parliamentary elections on October 4, 2020, sparked street protests that brought down the government and forced the president of the Central Asian country to resign.<\/p>\n
Now people are scratching their heads over a $1 million international lobbying contract signed on behalf of Kyrgyzstan\u2019s acting president — just days after he got out of jail — by an obscure Bishkek businessman with a self-professed former Israeli intelligence agent living in Canada.<\/p>\n
Ari Ben-Menashe, who claims to have worked for Israeli intelligence in the 1970s and 1980s, registered as a foreign agent in Washington in early November 2020 to help Sapyr Japarov — who came to power in Kyrgyzstan after the failed elections and is now a leading presidential candidate — secure meetings with foreign officials and attract international investment to his impoverished country, U.S. lobbying documents show.<\/a><\/p>\n Ben-Menashe told RFE\/RL he was tapped to help Kyrgyzstan by an acquaintance he met in Russia named Abdymanap Karchygaev, who says he is a successful businessman who heads Renaissance, a newly registered Kyrgyz agro-industrial firm.<\/p>\n The $1 million fee for Ben-Menashe’s services — which was fully paid by December 21, 2020, according to U.S. filings — was partially financed by Karchygaev\u2019s friends in Russia, the Kyrgyz businessman said.<\/p>\n Karchygaev, who began negotiating the contract in September 2020 when Japarov was still serving a prison term for kidnapping, said he hoped the international lobbying effort would help attract $8 billion in aid and investment to Kyrgyzstan. If accomplished, the amount would exceed the country\u2019s total foreign direct investment in the past 25 years, according to World Bank data.<\/a><\/p>\n “I had [aimed] to set up around 100 companies under the umbrella of the agro-industrial corporation, to bring back hundreds of Kyrgyz wandering around in Russia and create jobs,” Karchygaev told reporters in Bishkek on November 6, 2020. “Bearing in mind this idea, I contacted this consultancy company. I’ve lived in Russia for 10 years, therefore, these are my old acquaintances.”<\/p>\n Ben-Menashe told RFE\/RL in an interview that he met with Japarov in his government office in Bishkek three times in October 2020 to discuss details of the lobbying deal before it was signed by Karchygaev in Japarov’s name.<\/p>\n The contract does not mention any preferential treatment for Karchygaev or his companies though it does seek to attract investment into Kyrgyzstan’s agricultural industry, which could potentially benefit the businessman.<\/p>\n When the $1 million contract became public following Ben-Menashe\u2019s mandatory registration in the United States, reporters in Kyrgyzstan started to ask questions.<\/p>\n Japarov first denied having met with Ben-Menashe and dismissed the deal as a bureaucratic mistake by a novice employee. He added that he could barely remember Karchygaev.<\/p>\n