Author: Vasil Iarajuli

Since the 2020 war and its trilateral ceasefire agreement on November 9th, Russia’s future in South Caucasus seems to be intertwined with the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. The way Moscow demonstratively chose not to aid its military ally Armenia in the face of the joint Azerbaijani-Turkish assault on Nagorno-Karabakh or to put a stop to it as it had done previously, aggravated an already existing public distrust and bitterness among Armenians towards Russia. The recent developments, with Nagorno-Karabakh left isolated and practically under siege by Azerbaijan while the Russian peacekeepers seem to be incapable of resolving the situation, have further fomented that criticism. The developments…

“It is phenomenal to discover proof of this rare and remarkable species at the top of the world.” The Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is home to the first-ever report of a Pallas’s cat, according to research from a recent publication that was published in Cat News. The 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Trip’s joint project plays an important role in this finding. As stated in the release, the Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition biology field team of scientists collected environmental samples from two locations 3.7 miles (6 km) apart at 16,765 and 17,027 ft (5,110 and 5,190 m) elevation…

How to reckon with the ideology of “Anna Karenina,” “Eugene Onegin,” and other beloved books. The first and only time I visited Ukraine was in 2019. My book “The Possessed”—a memoir I had published in 2010, about studying Russian literature—had recently been translated into Russian, along with “The Idiot,” an autobiographical novel, and I was headed to Russia as a cultural emissary, through an initiative of pen America and the U.S. Department of State. On the way, I stopped in Kyiv and Lviv: cities I had only ever read about, first in Russian novels, and later in the international news. In 2014, security forces…

World and European judo champion Tato Grigalashvili won the prize for best male athlete of 2022 at the Georgian National Olympic Committee’s awards in Tbilisi, while Eter Liparteliani took the best female athlete honours. Grigalashvili was crowned world champion in the men’s under-81 kilograms category for the first time at the World Championships in Tashkent, following on from a silver in Budapest the year prior. He became European champion for the second time in Sofia earlier in the year, and also took gold at the World Judo Masters in Jerusalem. Liparteliani won bronze at the European Championships in the women’s…

Pankisi, a wooded valley in the Caucasus Mountains, was labeled a refuge for terrorists. All I found was life-changing food and hospitality. We were down to the last slice of khachapuri when our host, Leila Achishvili, said something that made me put down my fork: “Everyone thinks we’re terrorists here.” We’d been talking about the situation in Pankisi, a remote valley in northeastern Georgia where I’d come to write about the food. Pleated nettle dumplings, pumpkin-honey flatbread, plump beefy noodles called zhizhig galnash—these hyperlocal dishes were some of the most distinctive (and delicious-sounding) in Georgia, yet nobody seemed to know anything about them.…

Advocates say they’re emulating the best Western practices. Critics fear the inspiration comes from Russia. A group of MPs close to Georgia’s ruling party is pushing for the creation of a register of “agents of foreign influence” for foreign-funded non-governmental entities, in what critics see as the government’s attempt to crack down on critical watchdogs. On New Year’s Eve, the People’s Power movement, led by MPs who formally quit the ruling Georgian Dream party last year, announced their intention to table a bill that would compel foreign-funded NGOs to register as foreign influence agents. The group claims the bill copies…

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Saturday congratulated the citizens on National Flag Day, highlighting it as “one of the most important” symbols of Georgian statehood. The Georgian flag has been an “expression” of Georgian identity, “national spirit and unique culture”, tracing the history of the country that every citizen has been proud of, Garibashvili noted in his social media post. Our flag unites the history of our country [Georgia] and people, the values that we have protected for centuries and will always do. Our people have worked hard to get to where we are today and we have achievements…