OC Media

Stay up to date with all the most important events from around the Caucasus, with our curated daily news roundup. 📩 Become OC Media member and receive the Caucasus Daily Brief, five days per week, on the website or in your inbox. Sign up: https://lnkd.in/dMwi24X5

EDITORIAL | Bidzina Ivanishvili has emerged from behind the curtains with a dark vision for the future of Georgia. In an unhinged rant filled with conspiracy theories and threats of repression, Georgia’s ruling oligarch has made crystal clear that he no longer plans to tolerate dissent — from within the country or from his critics in the West. https://lnkd.in/dXCQh3ET

This week on the Caucasus Digest: OC Media’s Robin Fabbro Mariam Nikuradze and Shota Kincha talk about Georgian Dream’s foreign agent law, and what to expect in the days ahead. https://lnkd.in/dqKweYZw

Georgia’s ruling party has promised to pass a controversial ‘foreign agents’ law a year after it was withdrawn following mass street protests. Coming just six months before parliamentary elections, why is the ruling party making such a risky move? https://lnkd.in/dx2XHG2i

Why have Azerbaijan’s land borders remained closed for four years post-Covid? Explore the leading theories in our newest op-ed by Javid Agha https://lnkd.in/dv9R32Qp

🔴 BREAKING: The ruling Georgian Dream party has announced they will again attempt to pass a controversial ‘foreign agents law’ targetting civil society organisations and the media after the previous attempt last year was thwarted by massive street protests. https://lnkd.in/gzj6ME9b

In Georgia’s southern Samtskhe-Javakheti region, many once populous villages are facing rapid abandonment, with their former inhabitants driven to leave by harsh environmental conditions and government neglect. ‘There is nothing here’, said one resident, who asked to remain anonymous. ‘No gas, no school, no playground for children to play in the yard. That’s why everyone wants to leave. People have no interest in staying here.’ https://lnkd.in/d7YTPN77

This week on the Caucasus Digest: Alya Aghayeva talks about the police’s raid of Toplum TV, and AbzasMedia’s interim editor-in-chief Leyla Mustafayeva talks about her outlet’s decision to operate in exile after the government arrested their management. https://lnkd.in/da68VykT

Abkhazia’s government and opposition have for months been calling for Abkhazian citizens to vote in the upcoming Russian presidential elections. While both sides have openly praised Russia’s president, the mood amongst Abkhazia’s people is less clear-cut. Read more 👇 https://lnkd.in/ghJ3XBjt

This week on the Caucasus Digest, we speak to Viola von Cramon, a Member of the European Parliament, about Armenia’s EU prospects. Listen to the full episode: https://lnkd.in/d24cUdZq