How one of the richest people in Central Asia, Omurbek Babanov, is helping Russia in its war against Ukraine

Russia has got another ally in its war against Ukraine. This time on the sanctions front. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov, in his interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin, who is close to the Kremlin, said: "Of course, it is wrong they say one thing and do another. There are European countries that are members of NATO or the European Union and still cooperate with Russia. And they should not tell us, point, or ask not to cooperate with Russia or the CIS", – the Ukranews wrote, citing the expert.

However, not only government agencies but also representatives of the private sector are focused on cooperation with Russia. One of them is OmurbekBabanov, a former prime minister of Kyrgyzstan and owner of MBank, one of the largest banks in the country. He also owns the "Asia Cement" cement plant in Russia. This company is involved in the construction of the Multifunctional Fast Research Reactor (MFR) in Dymytrovgrad, which is a project of the Russian nuclear industry.

Back in 2017, Babanov openly stated that the future of Kyrgyzstan is linked exclusively to Russia.

Omurbek Babanov's pro-Russian actions attracted the attention of international journalists. In particular, it was found that MBank, owned by Babanov, cooperates with the Russian Sberbank, which is subject to the EU and the US sanctions. According to news media, one of the mechanisms for circumventing sanctions is through MBank's partnership with Sberbank's subsidiary Bank 131. They also mentioned MBank's cooperation with the Russian center "Kartstandard" (a member of the CFT group, which is under US sanctions) through their affiliate CSI, which is engaged in processing operations.

The key piece of journalist investigation was a reportage in Foreign Policy entitled "Ukraine's Sprawling Hybrid Warfare Could Be the Middle East's Future". The article refers to MBank's cooperation with Russia's Sberbank, which is under numerous sanctions. Babanov himself is also mentioned in the article. According to the publication, he could potentially face sanctions due to the ties of his company "Asia Cement" to the Russian nuclear industry. Foreign Policy warns that if MBank continues to cooperate with sanctioned Russian companies, it could be subject to secondary sanctions from the US and EU.

It seems that Babanov did not like this media attention. Instead of announcing the termination of cooperation with Russia, he started deleting revelatory publications. For example, an investigation into his activities was removed from the Turkish edition of TimeTurk without any legal grounds. It was made under pressure from administrative resources, at Babanov's request. References to the construction of the MFR by Babanov'scement plant also disappeared from Russian-language media.

The purge began after the Foreign Policy article was published and it continues to evolve. However, the Internet keeps everything. The TimeTurk investigation is still available on the Web Archive.

Also, when searching for "Asia Cement MFR," Google's Russian-language results still index materials confirming the participation of "Asia Cement" in the MFR construction. Articles about this have also been preserved in the Web Archive.

It is likely that the removal of texts denouncing OmurbekBabanov will continue. However, his activities are now under the watchful eye of hundreds of professionals who defend freedom of speech and international law. Given his extensive criminal record, we can expect that the number of investigations into his activities will increase.The main body that considers such "cases" in the world is OFAС (Office of Foreign Assets Control).