No one will steal a single gram of gold from Kumtor mine. President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov stated in an interview with Kabar news agency.

The head of state explained why the company introduced external management.

«According to the agreement, 74 percent of Kumtor shares belonged to Centerra. We introduced external management because they used natural resources not according to international standards and did not pay taxes in full. They sued us in an international court in Toronto, New York, London, they began to make claims that Kumtor is worth $3 billion today, and Kyrgyzstan took it away. We, in turn, calculated and also wrote written claims for $3 billion. But this calculation method is not accurate. Roughly speaking, we took this figure out of thin air,» Sadyr Japarov said.

According to the president, former officials and deputies passed a law that would allow further destruction of glaciers.

«The law was adopted by the enemies of the people. I instructed to carefully investigate the damage caused by corruption. Naturally, there was tax evasion. This money was returned to Kumtor. There were disputes for a whole year, negotiations continued. Finally, Kumtor is 100 percent owned by Kyrgyzstan. During the negotiations, we transferred $53 million to the account of Kyrgyzstan, this is money that we could not receive for a long time, they were on the accounts of the trust fund abroad. This is money that will be used to restore nature after the shutdown of Kumtor. For 30 years, politicians who have raised the topic of Kumtor have been asking why the money is kept in a foreign bank, that it should be kept in our banks. But they themselves did not transfer a single dollar to our banks. This money is in the National Bank today, our banks will benefit before the completion of the work of Kumtor. In addition, we will be paid compensation of $50 million. We received $11 million in the form of last year’s dividends. Thus, the stabilization fund will receive $61 million. We will build Tamchi Free Economic Zone at the expense of this money,» Sadyr Japarov said.