The Caucasus Digest

Azerbaijan appears to be trying to position itself as a champion of the anti-colonial movement by criticising France’s colonial past and supporting independence movements in its overseas territories. This week, we speak to political analyst and PhD candidate at Charles University in Prague Bahruz Samadov about the Baku Initiative Group, a group linked to the Azerbaijani governmen

The ruling Georgian Dream party has introduced a legislative package that would ban ‘LGBT propaganda’, potentially setting back decades of progress on queer rights in the country. This week, we speak to OC Media staff writer Shota Kincha about the contents of the law, to Tbilisi Pride’s director Tamar Jakeli about the future of the queer rights movement in light of the law, a

Azerbaijan, a country whose economy depends heavily on fossil fuels, is set to host the United Nations' annual climate change conference, COP29, in November this year, amidst rampant human rights abuses and terrible environmental practices. This week, we speak to journalist Arzu Geybulla talks about human rights abuses in Azerbaijan and her expectations for COP29, while environment

OC Media’s Robin Fabbro, Mariam Nikuradze, and Shota Kincha sit down to discuss whether Georgia’s democracy could survive with the passing of the draconic foreign agent law, and October’s critical parliamentary elections. Read more: Georgia’s parliament passes controversial electoral code amendments Support independent journalism in the Caucasus and become an OC Media Me

Tavush for the Motherland, a movement fronted by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, has made headlines protesting in Armenia’s north and in the capital Yerevan against the delimitation process with Azerbaijan. This week, we speak to OC Media’s Armenian staff writer Arshaluys Barseghyan about how the protest movement shifted from protesting border delimitation to calling for the gove

The foreign agent law has passed its third and final reading in the Georgian parliament despite mass protests against the law throughout the country. This week, OC Media’s Robin Fabbro, Mariam Nikuradze, and Shota Kincha talk about President Salome Zourabichvili’s expected veto of the law, the possibility of Western sanctions against members of the ruling Georgian Dream party,

Georgians have once again come out to protest the foreign agents bill after the ruling Georgian Dream party reintroduced the draft law a year after aborting it. This week, we spoke with OC Media’s Mariam Nikuradze and Shota Kincha about the daily mass protests against the bill, the government’s reactions, and how the coming weeks might unfold. Read more: Georgian foreign agen

Chechnya’s Culture Ministry said earlier this month that the Russian republic would issue restrictions on music slower than 80 bpm and faster than 116 bpm. At the time, the ministry stated that the Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov had instructed them to introduce the restrictions, however, last week, Kadyrov said that the restrictions were meant to be ‘recommendations’ for perform

The ruling Georgian Dream party has reintroduced its controversial foreign agents law, a bill that the party was forced to abort after two nights of mass protests in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The ruling party’s reintroduction of the bill was met with wide condemnation both domestically and internationally due to its similarity to legislation that was used to crush civil socie

Last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg toured the South Caucasus to visit the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. This week, we speak to political analyst and head of the Regional Center for Democracy Tigran Grigoryan about the significance of a new partnership agreement between Armenia and NATO, to independent researcher Shujaat Ahmadzada about the importance