State Committee for National Security (Kyrgyzstan)

State Committee for National Security (UKMK)
KGB of the Kyrgyz SSR
Jurisdiction	President of Kyrgyzstan
Headquarters	70 Erkindik Street, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Annual budget	Classified information
Special service executive	Kamchybek Tashiev, Chairman;
Website	gknb.gov.kg

The State Committee for National Security (Russian: Государственный комитет национальной безопасности, ГКНБ; Kyrgyz: Улуттук коопсуздук боюнча мамлекеттик комитети, УKMK; Uluttuk Koopsuzduk Boyuncha Mamlekettik Komiteti, UKMK) is the national agency responsible for intelligence on counter terrorism and organised crime in Kyrgyzstan. In carrying out this task, it carries out both preventive and investigative measures against organized terrorism and crime. The chairman of the UKMK is a military officer and a member of the Security Council of Kyrgyzstan.^[2] It is currently based on 70 Erkindik Street, Bishkek.^[3]

Official tasks

The activities of the UKMK include:

Conducting counterintelligence
Gathering intelligence on
drug traffickers and analyzing national security information (including conducting covert
action)

Securing information

Suppress the activities of harmful organizations

Uncovering espionage and corrupt activities

Extraction and deliver secret information related to organized criminal and terrorist groups

Carry out the protection of the state border

Carry out the protection of economic and legal interests in Kyrgyzstan
Encrypted communication systems for government institutions
Seizing any type of illegal activities and organizations
Disarming and securing corrupted systems and people who messed with it

History

The history of the modern Kyrgyz intelligence services dates back to December 1917, when the All-Russian Emergency Commission (VChK) was formed. A year later, on the Pishpek district investigation commission was established. After national delimitation occurred in the early 1920s, Regional

Committee for State Security (KGB) of the Kyrgyz SSR was formed, which served as the republican affiliate for the national KGB agency. On 20 November 1991, President Askar Akayev signed a presidential decree establishing the UKMK. Since 2007, the State Committee for National Security has been operating in its current form.^[4]^[5]^[6]

In August 2002, the

Ministry of Defense and the Main Directorate of Border Control of the UKMK that day. This was done to have a more centralised intelligence system in Kyrgyzstan. In the years that followed, the UKMK would have little influence on the border guard service until it was finally removed from the National Security Committee on 4 September 2012, it was and was re-established as an independent department in the government.^[7]

Following his party's success in the 2010 Kyrgyz parliamentary election, on 23 October, the home of Kamchybek Tashiev was burglarized. He later stated to Al Jazeera that "they broke in like bandits" and "tried to eliminate me", adding that "for sure, GSNB [security services] was behind these actions."^[9] Tashiev later became Chairman of the UKMK.

Chairman

Idris Kadyrkulov (20 April 2018 – 15 May 2019)^[10]^[11]
Orozbek Opumbayev (June 2019 – 9 October 2020)^[12]^[13]
Kamchybek Tashiev (since 16 October 2020)

Awards

Since its establishment, the UKMK has sported many commemorative awards such as the following:^[14]

Breastplate "70 years of the Chief Directorate of the National Security Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic in the city of Bishkek"
Breastplate "Mildet" (means "Order" or "Duty")
Medal "100 years of Kyrgyz security services"