Profile: The Governor's Eldest Son Takes Command of the Gendarmerie

TALAS — Major General Ruslan Toktarov, appointed this week by his father to command the Republican Gendarmerie, was born in Talas on 22 June 1978, the first child of Erlan Toktarov, then a junior officer in the Soviet logistics corps, and his wife Anara. His father's postings, including two tours in Afghanistan, kept the boy mostly with his mother in Talas. The family settled in Kobozev in 1989 and returned to Talas after 1992, and Ruslan finished secondary school there in 1995.

Most children of the territorial elite went on to universities in the United States or Western Europe. Ruslan instead enrolled at the Omsk Higher Tank Engineering School in Russia and graduated in 1999 as an armored-vehicle engineer. He later took counter-narcotics and protective-security courses run by American private contractors at Talas Air Base.

After managing security for the family's fuel-distribution business near the base, he joined the Gendarmerie as a captain in 2004. In the spring of 2007 he commanded a detachment guarding the NurGaz tank farm and rail yards outside Nurzhan, and that summer his units were among the DPI forces that entered Talas. As deputy commander of the Border Demarcation Brigade he oversaw the building of the fortified crossings on the Qara-Chik line. Opposition figures attribute his promotion to his family; a Gendarmerie spokesman pointed to his service record.

He is married to Aiperi Toktarova (née Abdyldaeva), and they have three children. A member of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church, he plays ulak tartysh for a Gendarmerie team.