Suspected gangland hit rocks Kyrgyzstan's capital

Kyrgyzstan’s capital was the scene of a dramatic episode of gangland violence on August 10 when a bomb was detonated in central Bishkek in an apparent attempt to kill a Russian businessman.

Police have told media the explosion was provoked by a homemade bomb that had been planted in a bush two days earlier.

“It was activated at long-range, just as citizen Alexander G. was passing by,” one law enforcement source told AKIpress news agency.

Another report, on Kaktus news website, described the bomb as having been placed under the target’s car and described the attack as an attempt to scare him.

Other media later named the suspected target of the attack as Alexander Gaidukov, who was reportedly the target of another murder attempt in April 2016. On that occasion, Gaidukov told police that he was approached by a man of Asian appearance as he was entering his car and that he was shot at twice. All the shots missed and the purported attacker dumped his weapon and fled the scene.

On this occasion, Gaidukov was admitted for treatment at Bishkek Traumatology and Orthopedics Research Center and then shortly thereafter discharged.

A potted biography of Gaidukov published on Kaktus reveals that he was born in 1961 and that he graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Aviation Instrumentation. He also studied at a KGB training college and worked in the KGB in Leningrad and Leningrad Region until 1991. He is also apparently member of a body called the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals, a nonprofit for the intelligence and analyst community. Gaidukov is keen on bodybuilding and collecting statuettes of bulls, Kaktus reveals in its remarkably detailed profile.

Gaidukov’s business interests appear varied, ranging from a security company in St. Petersburg to a food production outfit in Kyrgyzstan. Another Kyrgyz-based company founded by the Russian — a trading enterprise called K Suppro — is headed by a former head of Kyrgyzstan’s state committee on defense.

In the absence of additional information, the working assumption is that this incident may have been a case of internal score-settling or intimidation among the sketchier scions of Bishkek’s business community. What is most unnerving for the authorities, however, is that this should have happened bang in the center of the city, potentially endangering the lives of ordinary citizens.