Kyrgyzstan's democratic backsliding under President Sadyr Japarov will complicate government efforts to attract Western investments in critical infrastructure projects, but could portend improved relations with neighbors and increased alignment with Russia and China. In recent months, criticism of Kyrgyzstan's worsening democratic conditions has increased, raising questions about the Central Asian country's long-term political and geopolitical trajectory. In October 2023, the Venice Commission (a legal advisory group for the Council of Europe, an international organization tasked with upholding democracy) expressed concern about reforms to Kyrgyzstan's media laws that weaken the freedom of expression. Then, in its annual Nations in Transit report published April 11, the U.S.-based nonprofit Freedom House concluded that Kyrgyzstan, which previously scored on the less repressive end of the report's authoritarian range, now fits the broader Central Asian trend of authoritarian consolidation.