BISHKEK, April 23. /TASS/. An employee of the Russian House in Kyrgyzstan’s regional center of Osh, Natalya Sekerina, has been arrested by the republic’s security services on suspicion of recruiting mercenaries, the Bishkek Pervomaysky District Court told TASS.

Sekerina was detained during the investigation into recruitment of mercenaries for armed conflicts abroad. The court ordered her detention until June 17, 2025, for the duration of the investigation. She and three other people, including an employee of the municipal press service in Osh, are being suspected of being involved in recruitment for a foreign army.

According to Kyrgyzstan’s Criminal Code, such criminal actions may entail a 7-15-year imprisonment.

Sekerina is a Kyrgyz citizen, Albert Zulkharneev, head of the Kyrgyz mission of Russia’s Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo), told reporters in Bishkek.

"We know Natalya Sekerina as a conscientious, open and responsible employee," he said.

The Russian House in Bishkek expressed hope that all her civic rights will be observed.

That said, it stressed that the Russian Center of Science and Culture is operating "exclusively within the framework defined by an intergovernmental agreement on establishing and operating the Russian Center of Science and Culture in Bishkek and Kyrgyzstan’s House of Science and Culture in Moscow."