Sooronbay Jeenbekov

Sooronbay Şarip uulu Jeenbekov (; ; born 16 November 1959) is a Kyrgyz politician who served as the 5th President of Kyrgyzstan from 2017 until his resignation in 2020, following a week of protests. Prior to that he served as the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan from April 2016 to August 2017. As president, Jeenbekov dealt with issues specifically in foreign policy and corruption in which several juridical reforms were implemented to improve public trust. In spite of that, Kyrgyzstan under Jeenbekov faced a growth of organised crime and government corruption and lack of economic development which was negatively affected upon the COVID-19 pandemic and was accused of downplaying the alleged cases of electoral fraud in the 2020 parliamentary election that resulted in the 2020 Kyrgyz Revolution and his resignation amidst political unrest over the disputed election results. He was succeeded by Sadyr Japarov who would go on to serve as an acting president and prime minister for short period of time before being officially elected in the 2021 presidential elections. Jeenbekov was widely viewed to continue his predecessor Almazbek Atambayev's policies with whom he had held close relations prior before since the 1990s that enabled Jeenbekov to rise in political ranks until two parties faced political fallout just months after he assuming office eventually leading to Atambayev's arrest and an end of his influence in Kyrgyz politics. Early life and education Jeenbekov was born in Biy-Myrza, Osh Region on 16 November 1959. His father, Sharif, was a collective farm (kolkhoz) manager while his mother was a housewife. His grandfather, Jeenbek Pirnazarov, was a Red Army soldier who served during the Great Patriotic War and was labelled as missing in action. 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.