page_title: Almazbek Atambayev
section_title: Foreign policy
hierarchical_section_title: Almazbek Atambayev / Presidency (2011–2017) / Foreign policy
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Участники заседания Совета глав государств – участников Шанхайской организации сотрудничества
context_page_description: Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev is a Kyrgyz politician who served as the President of Kyrgyzstan from 1 December 2011 to 24 November 2017. He was Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan from 17 December 2010 to 1 December 2011, and from 29 March 2007 to 28 November 2007. He served as Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan from 30 July 1999 to 23 September 2011. Currently he is imprisoned, facing charges of corruption and manslaughter.
context_section_description: In 2011 soon after becoming President, Atambayev travelled to Turkey and signed an agreement with the Turkish President agreeing to increase trade from $300 million in 2011 to $1 billion by 2015, with Turkey also agreeing to attract Turkish investment to Kyrgyzstan to the amount of $450 million within the next few years.
  Atambayev has repeatedly presented himself as a pro-Russian politician. He has announced Kyrgyzstan's entry into the Customs Union, secured the withdrawal of the American military base from the country in 2014, and has spoken of the need for closer economic relations with the Russian Federation, which employs at least 500,000 citizens of Kyrgyzstan; however, he also expressed his wish to achieve greater economic and energy independence from it.
  In early 2012 Atambayev travelled to Moscow, where in his meeting with Medvedev he called for the $15 million owed by Russia to Kyrgyzstan for their use of the Kant airbase.
  In 2013, he launched a tirade against the United Kingdom, accusing it undermined democracy by allowing a Bakiyev's son, Maxim to live in London:
  "Is Britain hosting the kids of [Muammar] Gaddafi or Bashar al-Assad? Why are there double standards against Kyrgyzstan? Britain is saying: 'We want to help with democratic development in Kyrgyzstan.' That's a lie. You're hosting a guy who robbed us. We could use that money to fund fair elections".
  In February 2015, tension with Belarus arose over the death of Almanbet Anapiyaev, aged 41, whose death Atambayev said lied solely in former Security Service chief Janish Bakiyev, who was being sheltered in Minsk alongside his father. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry responded by saying that it "makes no sense" to comment on his statement. In May 2015, during a Victory Day meeting of CSTO leaders in Moscow, Atambayev took part in an argument with President Islam Karimov over which who was being more patriotic during the 70th anniversary celebrations.
  During the Kyrgyz presidential election in 2017, Atambayev accused Kazakhstan of sponsoring Ömürbek Babanov, who was one of the presidential candidates. He also accused Kazakhstan officials for being corrupt by looting the pensioners income. On 9 October 2017, Atambayev announced that he wouldn't attend  the CIS heads of state summit in Sochi, which would have required the Kyrgyz leader to meet president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. That same month, he visited the Uzbek capital of Tashkent in a breakthrough visit for a Kyrgyz leader.
caption: Atambayev with Nursultan Nazarbayev.
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