Sooronbay Sharip uulu Jeenbekov[a] (born 16 November 1958) is a Kyrgyz politician who served as the fifth president of Kyrgyzstan from 2017 until his resignation in 2020, following a week of protests.

[3][4] As president, Jeenbekov dealt with issues specifically in foreign policy and corruption in which several juridical reforms were implemented to improve public trust.

In spite of that, Kyrgyzstan under Jeenbekov faced a growth of organised crime and government corruption and lack of economic development which was negatively affected upon the COVID-19 pandemic and was accused of downplaying the alleged cases of electoral fraud in the 2020 parliamentary election that resulted in the 2020 Kyrgyz Revolution and his resignation amidst political unrest over the disputed election results.

[10] His grandfather, Jeenbek Pirnazarov, was a Red Army soldier who served during the Great Patriotic War and was labelled as missing in action.

[18] Jeenbekov was inaugurated as president on 24 November 2017 in a ceremony that took place in the Enesay reception house of the Ala Archa State Residence.

[21] On 19 April 2018, Jeenbekov fired his Prime Minister Sapar Isakov and the government following a vote of no confidence from Kyrgyzstan's parliament.

[24] During his visit, Erdoğan pressured Jeenbekov to take the appropriate measures to deal with Turkish Islamist leader Fethullah Gülen.

[27] In April 2019, Jeenbekov received Valentina Shevchenko (a professional Kyrgyz–Peruvian mixed martial artist fighter) during her tour of her native Kyrgyzstan, her first visit in seven years.

In his inaugural remarks, he vowed to make the Kremlin the country's "main strategic partner" as well as signaled that he will seek more collaborative bilateral ties with China and the European Union.

He is noted for repairing relations with neighboring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, following an improvement in ties under Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who took power the year before Jeenbekov, and a diplomatic crisis after Jeenbekov's predecessor, Almazbek Atambayev accused Kazakhstan of election interference and called the Kazakh government under President Nursultan Nazarbayev a "dictatorship".

In an address to the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan in late June 2018, he outlined and made clear that his country will pursue and develop multilateral relations with Turkey, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and the Arab world by the end of his term in 2023.

[31] In his first year in office, President Jeenbekov participated in 30 international meetings, where 77 bilateral agreements and 414 multilateral documents were signed.

[46] As it turned out later, cases with a politically motivated bias were personally handled by the president's nephew Rustambek Borombaev in Attorney general's office, and his relatives also entered the leadership circles of the corrupt South-West customs of Kyrgyzstan.

[49] The public and the media accused the country's authorities of excessive mortality from the coronavirus pandemic, particularly pointing out corrupt schemes involving people connected to the president's brother, Asylbek Jeenbekov.

In June 2020, Jeenbekov went into quarantine after returning from a cut-short visit to Moscow after two of his staffers tested positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic in Kyrgyzstan.

In the early months of his presidency, he used his position to praise Atambayev's work, even going as far giving him the title of "Hero of the Kyrgyz Republic", which is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a citizen of Kyrgyzstan.

Since Atambayev left office on 24 November 2017 and handed the presidency to his successor Sooronbay Jeenbekov, he has served as head of the SDPK.

[45] By that time, the media began to dazzle with headlines about the family-clan regime of Jeenbekov and dozens of his relatives in the highest state apparatus, embassies and parliament.

In early April 2018, Jeenbekov dismissed two high-ranking officials in the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) who are considered to be close to Atambayev.

[56] In an interview on his 60th birthday later in the year, Jeenbekov accused Atambayev of indirectly and directly trying to influence him and his presidency, saying the following to the 24 Kyrgyzstan news agency:[57] His attempts to turn me into a puppet leader through some third individuals, to direct my actions – discredit him as a person, as an ex-president, as a fellow party member and associate.He later denied that he was fighting with Atambayev, saying at a press conference in December 2018 that his major goal was to do "nothing but to work day and night" while saying that he does "not consider anyone a rival".

[62] On early Tuesday morning of 6 October, protesters claimed control over Ala-Too Square in central Bishkek[63] and also managed to seize the White House and Supreme Council buildings, entering the President's offices and destroying portraits of Jeenbekov.

[65] Jeenbekov claimed that he faced a coup d'état,[64] and then he told the BBC that he was "ready to give the responsibility to strong leaders".

[68] In an address published on the presidential website on 8 October, Jeenbekov declared: "After legitimate executive authorities have been approved and we are back on the path of lawfulness, I am ready to leave the post of President of the Kyrgyz Republic".

[69][70] Later that day however, despite all indications of the opposite, Jeenbekov declared a state of emergency in Bishkek and ordered the deployment of the Kyrgyz Army to the streets.