President of Kyrgyzstan, the increasingly authoritarian leader of what used to be Central Asia's only democracy.
Mr Japarov became president in dramatic fashion in 2020-21. After widespread vote-buying marred a parliamentary election in 2020, citizens took to the streets and toppled the incumbent president. Amid the chaos his allies sprung him from prison, where he was serving a sentence for kidnapping, and installed him as prime minister. He won a cleanish presidential election a few months later.
He has since banned outspoken media outlets, jailed political opponents and removed the single-term presidential limit. He transformed Kyrgyzstan from a parliamentary democracy into a presidential system and introduced legislation modelled on Russia's "foreign agents" law. Vladimir Putin has called Kyrgyzstan under his leadership a "reliable partner".
Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.