A handmade felt map of Kyrgyzstan in a Kyrgyz school. Photo by GPE / Maxime Fossat via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) On November 23, 2022, the city court of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, which was evaluating an appeal by the prosecutor's office regarding a previous decision of the regional court, issued a ruling to deport the prominent investigative journalist Bolot Temirov. Despite the defendant holding Kyrgyz citizenship since 2008, he was hastily and forcefully deported to Moscow, Russia, causing bewilderment and criticism among human rights activists and international organizations. In May 2022, as several criminal investigations came one after another, he was deprived of Kyrgyz citizenship, on the grounds of “document forgery,” which eventually paved the way for his deportation to Russia. While being deported to Russia by force, he was not allowed to take any personal belongings, money, phone or even passport in violation of deportation procedures. The founder of the Temirov LIVE YouTube channel Bolot Temirov was among the nominees for the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 30th annual Press Freedom Prize in the Independence category. An ardent investigator of top-level corruption in his native Kyrgyzstan, Temirov was previously attacked and beaten up around the time of the exposure of a billion-dollar corruption scandal connected with Raimbek Matraimov, the deputy head of Kyrgyz customs, and his relatives. This time, he apparently “crossed the line” with his disclosure of corruption schemes connected with the state-owned Kyrgyz oil and gas company “Kyrgyzneftegaz” in which, allegedly, the children of the head of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) Kamchybek Tashiev were involved. It ought to be noted that Tashiev is a very close friend and political companion of the Kyrgyz president Sadyr Japarov. The Bishkek City Court’s decision to deport journalist Bolot Temirov disregards democratic principles. Journalists should be allowed to work without fear of retaliation. Freedom of expression is protected under the Kyrgyz constitution – these rights must be upheld. — U.S. Embassy Bishkek (@USEmbassyKG) November 23, 2022 As it turned out, the GKNB and its security agents were quick in their attempts to silence the journalist and his colleagues, employing surveillance, blackmail and spying, including the publication of a sex tape involving a woman employee of “Temirov LIVE.” As for Temirov himself, his apartment was bugged and later raided, while he was charged with possessing and selling drugs, as well as falsification of documents and illegally crossing the border, although he believed that police officers planted drugs on him. Despite facing a potential 5-year-sentence, he was nevertheless acquitted of the drug possession and illegal border crossing charges on September 28, upon which they found no other way but to deport him. On December 7, 2022, another highly politicized trial, that of the 19-year-old blogger Yrys Zhekshenaliev, began in one of the district courts of Bishkek. Zhekshenaliev faced accusations of inciting public disobedience and stirring up mass riots. He was arrested in August 2022 in connection with a video that criticized the governmental endeavor to sell the Jetim-Too iron ore deposits, released by the Facebook group he administered, “Полит Узник” (Political Prisoner). Earlier, in November 2020, it was the then acting prime minister Sadyr Japarov who brought up the idea of paying back the USD 1.8 billion debt to the Exim Bank of China through the resources of Jetim-Too. However, on August 14, the same day the blogger was arrested, Japarov, who is now the president of Kyrgyzstan, claimed that the country was not yet ready to develop the Jetim-Too deposits, accusing “false-patriots” of spreading rumors of the government attempting to hand the mines to foreigners. Arrested blogger Yrys Zhekshenaliev at the court hearing. Bishkek, September 2, 2022. Screenshot from the Kaktus KG YouTube channel. Kyrgyzstan, which is ranked 72nd in the RSF World Press Freedom index as of the end of January 2022, currently exerts prodigious pressure on journalists and harasses them to an unprecedented extent, and limits media freedoms. Following the arrest of Temirov on January 22, 2022, the prosecutor general’s office started a criminal investigation of “Kaktus Media” over their republication of a story from a Tajik news outlet on the recent Kyrgyz–Tajik border conflict, accusing the media of a “propaganda of war” that stipulates a punishment for up to five years in prison. The acts of intimidation against journalists and media were not confined to legal actions.