The big problem with news coverage of Georgia is that a small cluster of foreign-funded NGO media platforms have come to dominate English-language reporting on the country while presenting themselves as neutral journalism. International media benefit from this arrangement. They get English-fluent intermediaries ready with quotes, angles and ready-made narratives. The NGO platforms benefit too, … Read more
The International Federation of Actors (IFA) calls on Georgian authorities to release from prison Andro Chichinadze, who was sentenced to two years in jail. FIA calls for the immediate release of actor Andro Chichinadze, who has been sentenced to two years of imprisonment for participating in a pro-European, anti-government protest. Based on the information available … Read more
Georgia needs to make mutually exclusive choices and commit to playing a role in the Caucasus. Geography provided Georgia with a range of opportunities limited by size, location, and history. Tbilisi did exploit the opportunities afforded by a period of globalization and U.S. hegemony, redefining the capacity of the state. The country assumed the role … Read more
An old Georgian legend explains our country’s fate better than most diplomatic cables. When God began distributing lands to the nations, every tribe arrived on time. Only Georgians were late—not out of laziness or neglect, but because they were feasting. When they finally appeared, God asked why. They answered honestly: they had been celebrating, and … Read more
Peace in the Russia–Ukraine war does not yet seem close, but neither is it impossibly distant. It is clear that Russia will, for some time, continue its efforts to achieve its maximalist goals in this war. However, the serious difficulties now visible in Russia’s economy and financial system are steadily reducing Moscow’s ability to continue … Read more
Political scientist Paata Sheshelidze questions the government’s plan to partner with major Gulf developers on vast new real estate complexes in Tbilisi and on the Black Sea, saying the public still does not know what, exactly, the country is agreeing to. Sheshelidze, president of the New Economic School and a former politician, told Interpressnews that … Read more
Georgia’s ruling party has filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court, asking it to outlaw three of the country’s main opposition parties. If the court agrees, it could leave hundreds of thousands of Georgians without a political alternative, and end what’s left of pluralism in the country’s politics, according to Sandro Baramidze, a representative of … Read more
The country’s opposition parties are repeating strategic mistakes that have allowed the ruling Georgian Dream party to entrench its rule, according to Nino Lomjaria, executive director of the non-governmental group Georgia’s European Orbit and former public defender (ombudswoman). Outlining her criticism in a social media post on Saturday, Lomjaria said opposition groups have failed to … Read more
Georgia’s “crackdown” isn’t what the headlines suggest. International coverage of Georgia’s recent detentions reads like a Cold War thriller. Words such as “purge,” “totalitarianism,” and “crackdown” are passed around as generously as khinkali at a supra. Once again, foreign audiences are dazzled by the imagery but left in the dark about what’s actually happening, and … Read more
Europe is pouring billions into the Middle Corridor, the transcontinental trade route linking China and Europe via Central Asia and the South Caucasus, but Georgia may be letting the opportunity slip through its fingers, warns Paata Tsagareishvili, head of the Middle Corridor Research Center in Tbilisi. In an interview with Interpressnews, Tsagareishvili said the European … Read more