Myrzakan Subanov was born in the Talas District of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic in 1944.

Subanov was promoted to lieutenant-general and colonel-general during his tenure as defense minister, but was dismissed from the Defense Ministry after an August 1999 incident in which guerrillas from Tajikistan crossed into Kyrgyzstan, occupied border villages, and seized hostages.

[1] Akayev's government dismissed Colonel-General Subanov over what press spokesman Kanybek Imanaliyev described as a failure to "stabilize the situation.

"[1] Subanov was returned to a prominent position in the government following the Tulip Revolution that ended President Akayev's fifteenth year in power in 2005 and served as head of the national Border Service in 2005–2006.

He was elected director of the Executive Committee of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's Regional Counterterrorism Structure in 2006.