Well-off Russians have long sought greater financial security and ease of travel using so-called golden passport and visa programs in offshore havens like Cyprus and Malta.
But an array of international travel and economic restrictions imposed after the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has spawned a burgeoning Russian market for second passports closer to home: the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
And not everyone in the small mountainous country is happy about it.
"Russian bloggers mockingly say: 'Look, you can buy Kyrgyz citizenship, it is very easy to do, you pay here, you get citizenship,'" Kyrgyz opposition lawmaker Dastan Bekeshev said during a parliamentary hearing last month.
Government data obtained by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service shows that the number of Russian citizens obtaining Kyrgyz passports spiked beginning in 2022, the year Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine.
While those numbers remain small compared to Kyrgyzstan's population of around 7 million, the trend has coincided with the rise of a bustling online market offering Russians help in securing Kyrgyz citizenship that has prompted concerns about potential fraud and corruption -- not to mention the optics.
"Everyone mocks us. They say: 'What kind of government is this?'" another Kyrgyz opposition politician, Emil Toktoshev, told the parliamentary hearing last month.
Russian-language advertisements on Facebook, YouTube, and the encrypted messaging app Telegram tout the ease and benefits of obtaining a Kyrgyz passport for Russians, including fewer travel restrictions and access to "golden" visa programs in third countries that Russians were shut out of after 2022.
Other advertised benefits include Russian as the country's second language and "political stability" in a country long seen as a bastion of democracy in an authoritarian neighborhood, though Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has cracked down on the media, civil society, and critics since taking power in 2020.
The stated cost for these services varies, ranging up to $20,000, with several of these brokers advertising fast-track minting of a new Kyrgyz passport within three to six months.
Kyrgyz officials say that time frame is possible depending on the timing of an applicant's submission and have suggested their hands are tied because these companies are incorporated in Russia. But both Bekeshev and Toktoshev have voiced concerns about possible corruption in the promised expediting of the process in exchange for thousands of dollars.
"Law enforcement also needs to look into this. Who is behind these agencies? Maybe they are sitting [in Kyrgyzstan]. Maybe someone from law enforcement is helping," Bekeshev told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service.
In order to learn more about the process, RFE/RL's Russian investigative unit, Systema, contacted multiple brokers involved in helping Russians obtain Kyrgyz passports. None of these brokers openly stated that bribery was involved, though one indicated money could indeed speed up the process.
"In order to get it as quickly as possible and go through this process painlessly, so to speak, you need to agree with the official who accepts your documents," said the broker, whom RFE/RL is not identifying. "You need to agree with a couple of officials who will review your case, who can really influence the timing."
In his comments to RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, Bekzat Ibraimov, deputy head of the population registration department under the presidential administration, denied any possibility of corruption or bribery in the process.
"I believe corruption is impossible. If only one person were responsible for making decisions, if applicants dealt with just one individual, then maybe corruption could occur. But here, the process goes through several stages. I can't even imagine how corruption could happen. What they say is not true," Ibraimov said.
During the January parliamentary discussion, Ibraimov referred to Russian brokers advertising Kyrgyz passports as "fraudsters."
"First of all, it appears these agencies only provide consulting services," Ibraimov told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service. "Applicants come to us directly, without intermediaries."
Russian Exodus
Hundreds of thousands of Russians have emigrated since the Kremlin's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, including economic migrants and those fleeing conscription and mounting political repressions.
Kyrgyzstan has seen a notable spike in Russian citizens applying for and receiving Kyrgyz citizenship following the invasion. The number of recipients jumped from 400 in 2021 to 1,122 the following year, and then to 5,373 and 7,122 in 2023 and 2024, respectively, according to government data.
Many of these newly minted citizens were ethnic Kyrgyz with Russian passports, including those who returned home following the invasion. Several told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that Russian authorities had prevented them from leaving due to their eligibility for conscription.
Among those who obtained Kyrgyz citizenship after the invasion are Russian political and business elites, according to lists of new Kyrgyz citizens previously released by the presidential administration.
These include former Tver regional Governor Dmitry Zelenin; Kirill Kayem, a senior executive with the state-controlled Skolkovo Innovation Center; and the wife and son of Yury Petrov, a federal lawmaker with Putin's ruling United Russia party under U.S. sanctions in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Another sanctioned Russian who obtained a Kyrgyz passport following the 2022 invasion is Ilya Gambazhidze, head of the Social Design Agency, a Moscow-based company that Washington says has led the propaganda campaign at the Kremlin's behest.
A trove of leaked records obtained by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, revealed internal details of Gambazhidze's operation sought to discredit Ukraine and its Western allies while also trying to boost support for far-right political parties in the European Union.
Russian businessman Vladislav Bakalchuk has also obtained Kyrgyz citizenship. In a Telegram post about his Kyrgyz passport last year, he posted a photo of himself together with his ex-wife, Tatyana Bakalchuk, the founder and CEO of Russian online-retail giant Wildberries, and Japarov. Later that year, Wildberries accused Vladislav Bakalchuk of involvement in a deadly shootout near the company's offices.
Under a 2014 law that the Russian government has used to target journalists and Kremlin critics, Russian citizens are required to inform authorities if they hold a foreign passport or residence permit.
Zelenin, Kayem, Petrov, and Gambashidze did not respond to requests for comment on why they decided to obtain Kyrgyz passports. Bakalchuk said publicly that his Kyrgyz passport would help him "to do business in this wonderful and friendly country."
For Russians born before the collapse of the Soviet Union, a quadrilateral agreement with Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Belarus offers a simplified process to obtain a second passport from these countries, exempting them from having to live in the country first.
Exclusive data obtained by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service shows a spike in the number of Russians born before December 21, 1991 -- the date of the Soviet Union's dissolution -- applying for and receiving Kyrgyz passports under this agreement following Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Ultimately it is the Kyrgyz president, Japarov, who gives the final sign-off on new citizenship. His administration stopped releasing the names of new Kyrgyz citizens in 2023.
Ulugbek Shukurbekov, head of the citizenship commission under the presidential administration, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that citizenship applicants are thoroughly vetted and it has no direct contact with them.
"All documents come to us after they get checked by the relevant authorities. We never have direct contact with the people. We have already contacted law-enforcement agencies two or three times on this issue. We said: 'There are such advertisements, please conduct the appropriate checks,'" Shukurbekov said.
The Russian firms offering help obtaining a Kyrgyz passport that RFE/RL contacted said being born prior to the Soviet dissolution is a precondition for hiring them. The companies said they do not provide guarantees of success, and several said they work entirely legally.
Another, however, indicated that if local Kyrgyz officials are not paid, the application process can drag on.
"If you don't pay, you'll have to wait more than a year. Plus, they won't set a specific day and time [for submitting documents]. And if they do, they won't accept it for a week and will reschedule," one company manager said.
'Resolved With Money'
Among the reasons this online citizenship shopping irks some Kyrgyz lawmakers are the difficulties many ethnic Kyrgyz from abroad face trying to obtain passports.
"I wonder why some people who have never lived in Kyrgyzstan quickly receive Kyrgyz citizenship, but our pure Kyrgyz do not," Bekeshev said at last month's parliamentary hearing.
Lawmaker Chyngyz Azhibayev told a parliamentary hearing in December that there are women who got married in Kyrgyzstan "who cannot obtain citizenship for 20-30 years."
"They have children and grandchildren here, but, unfortunately, they do not have citizenship," Azhibayev said.
One ethnic Kyrgyz woman told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service on condition of anonymity that she and her two children received Kyrgyz passports after moving from neighboring Tajikistan, but that a string of bureaucratic problems has prevented her husband from getting his.
"I previously helped 15 people obtain Kyrgyz citizenship before this," the woman, who is in her 60s, said. "Everything was resolved with the help of money…. Some waited a year, others waited even longer for an internal passport. Some were lucky: they received it in six to eight months."
Bekzat Ibraimov, deputy head of the population registration department under the presidential administration, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that the government had enacted measures to make it easier for ethnic Kyrgyz to obtain citizenship but conceded problems still exist.
"For example, ethnic Kyrgyz who are Uzbek citizens have been living here for many years, but their [Uzbek] passports have expired…. And we need a passport to apply for citizenship. That is why such problems arise today," Ibraimov said.
The opposition lawmaker Toktoshev told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that he and his colleagues have demanded law-enforcement authorities crack down on possible fraud involved in the Russian online market for Kyrgyz passports but have yet to receive a response.
"If they openly advertise and sell our passports, then they aren't selling them for nothing," Toktoshev said. "They might have connections here."
