Georgian newspaper Alia released in its November 13-19, 2017 edition a Facebook post by Bakur Svanidze, author of pro-Russian online portal Geworld.ge, where he claims that mainly those persons fell victims to Stalin’s repressions of 1937-1938, who were themselves arresting and shooting, torturing and destructing other innocent people earlier in 1933-1934. According to the data released by...

Tamar Kiknadze, a Georgian political analyst, said during Obieqtivi TV program “Gamis Studia” (Night Studio) on December 24 that EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell allegedly claimed that a human being should have no religious, ethnic or gender identity. Kiknadze called it the key postulate of liberalism, linking it to...

Disinformation is dangerous and potentially life-threatening as it is shown in the current pandemic. The spread of wrongful treatment methods resulted in multiple hospitalizations and deaths globally. Identifying information as unreliable becomes an important skill in consuming and interacting with media. Especially in countries with younger and less stable democracies such as Georgia, dis- and...

Russian interference, rising Covid cases, polarisation within the nation: The US and Georgia have much in common right now. Batu Kutelia, former Georgian ambassador in the US, talked to Greta Linde about the post-elections situation. 306 to 232 votes: Joe Biden, president-elect, has officially won the US electoral college. So, more than one and a...

Dissemination of manipulative or fake news may have various goals, including discrediting specific individuals or groups, inciting anti-Western sentiments etc. It is possible to find similarities between Georgia and Germany in this regard, despite different historical and geopolitical contexts. Namely, it is noteworthy that xenophobic messages in both countries demonstrate common accents: number of immigrants,...

Over the past years, information warfare has been gaining recognition as a major global threat, particularly due to its weaponization by state actors. It is widely believed that tools such as disinformation and propaganda particularly flourish in polarized and fractured societies. This makes countries and regions with longtime conflicts especially susceptible to their malign influence....

Media outlets reported a couple of days ago that Russian journalist Maxim Shevchenko arrived in Georgia. It emerges from Shevchenko’s video blog that he arrived in Georgia from Azerbaijan and his friends with close links to the government helped him with it. Shevchenko also notes that he himself has good acquaintances within the Georgian government. The Russian...

On April 20, 2020, Arno Khidirbegishvili, editor-in-chief of pro-Kremlin online media outlet, Sakinformi, shared on his Facebook page an article published by the same media outlet titled “Sensation! Georgian analyst solved the mystery of the coronavirus – Khidirbegishvili proved to be right.” The article notes that on March 24 and then on April 11, Khidirbegishvili spoke about “a...

On December 17, 2020, Facebook account Lasha Modebadze, which apparently is a fake profile, published a post about Kutaisi International University funded by Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Cartu Foundation. According to the post, Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, is building not the university, but a high-technology research center in Kutaisi with the key goal...

It is interesting to know when and which countries were illuminated with Christmas street decorations perceived by Internet users as men’s underpants. According to Georgian and Russian-language sources, the photo spread shortly before the New Year and depicting street decorations in a form of upside down triangles may be taken in Kutaisi, Tbilisi, Tomsk or...

On December 17, Facebook profile Nona Agdgomelashvili shared the video published by Jaz Dorado. Jaz Dorado’s description of the video is in English and notes that the nurse passed out after receiving the coronavirus vaccine. Aghdgomelashvili’s post is a Georgian translation of the primary source. Video shows the nurse speaking to journalists and saying that she and her...

Georgia has often been hailed as a democratic frontrunner in the Caucasus region. However, since the parliamentary elections end of October 2020, the political situation in Georgia has been fragile. The opposition parties are not willing to accept the outcome of the elections which support a renewed victory of the ruling party “Georgian Dream” and...