Shows / The Caucasus Digest
The Caucasus Digest
Your weekly view into the Caucasus region with the OC Media team. Every week, we break down some of the biggest topics in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Russian North Caucasus.
Episodes
- The Caucasus Digest
Going against the flow: Georgia's controversial hydropower plants
Georgia generates a staggering 85% of its electricity through hydropower plants; however, while further exploitation of Georgia's hydropower potential sounds…
- The Caucasus Digest
How the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War has reshaped the region
The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War has had a lasting impact on the South Caucasus, leading to a massive geopolitical shift. Azerbaijan emerged victorious, taking…
- The Caucasus Digest
Is Georgia getting EU candidate status?
The EU Commission is expected to deliver its recommendation on whether or not the European Union should now grant Georgia candidate status on 8 November. The…
- The Caucasus Digest
Chechens trying to find their place in Europe
The Kadyrov regime, installed by Moscow in Grozny after the fall of Ichkeria, a short-lived independent Chechen state that existed after the collapse of the…
- The Caucasus Digest
Tackling child marriages in Georgia
In early October, Aitaj Shakhmarova, 14, was murdered by a man who kidnapped her and forced her into marriage as she was trying to flee his home. The crime…
- The Caucasus Digest
No tents, no stages, no signs: Georgian Dream's war on protest
Georgia's Parliament adopted on Thursday evening amendments to the law on protests that would ban the erection of temporary structures – tents and stages…
- The Caucasus Digest
The Nagorno-Karabakh Exodus
More than half of Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian population have already sought refuge in Armenia less than a week after Stepanakert's surrender to Azerbaijan…
- The Caucasus Digest
The end of Nagorno-Karabakh?
On Tuesday, Azerbaijan launched a massive offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh. The aim was to 'restore constitutional order' and force the dissolution of the…
- The Caucasus Digest
Fighting Russia's colonial legacy in the North Caucasus
Since its conquest by Russia in the 19th century, the North Caucasus has been the scene of genocides, forced deportations, wars for independence, and…
- The Caucasus Digest
Tea Tsulukiani's chokehold on Georgian culture
Georgia's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Youth has seen a lot of changes since Tea Tsulukiani's appointment as minister, with Tsulukiani, a veteran member of…
- The Caucasus Digest
Shovi: an avoidable tragedy?
On 3 August, a fatal mudslide hit Shovi, a resort in the northwest of Georgia. At least 21 people were confirmed to have been killed as a result of the…
- The Caucasus Digest
The arrest of Gubad Ibadoghlu
On 23 July, Azerbaijani police detained Gubad Ibadoghlu, a prominent critic of the Azerbaijani Government and chair of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Welfare…
- The Caucasus Digest
North Caucasian art and activism in Tbilisi
Last week, a group of North Caucasian immigrants in Tbilisi gathered at the Centre for Contemporary Art to celebrate their culture and discuss the experience…
- The Caucasus Digest
Blockade fatigue in Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh has been under various degrees of blockade for over seven months now as Azerbaijan continues to prevent the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh from…
- The Caucasus Digest
A history of homophobic violence
This week, Tbilisi is celebrating Pride Week. But unlike most Prides, this one is being held behind closed doors. The fight for the right to be queer in public…
- The Caucasus Digest
Roadblocks and acid lakes: an Azerbaijani village under siege
The village of Soyudlu in western Azerbaijan was locked down by the police in late June after its residents protested environmental damage caused by a…
- The Caucasus Digest
Police brutality in Armenia
OC Media staff writer Ani Avetisyan and Daniel Ioannisyan, the programmes director of the Union of Informed Citizens, talk about the latest cases of police…
- The Caucasus Digest
Chiatura goes on strike
'Thousands' of miners employed by Georgian Manganese in the mining town of Chiatura went on strike to protest working conditions in the mines. The miners…
- The Caucasus Digest
Blank posters and phallic puns: how to get arrested in Georgia
Last week, seven protesters were detained outside the Georgian Parliament for holding signs and posters the police deemed 'offensive'. Three of those detained…
- The Caucasus Digest
Where are the Armenia–Azerbaijan peace talks going?
Armenia and Azerbaijan have recently been engaged in a series of frequent meetings between the country's leaders and foreign ministers in an attempt to reach a…
- The Caucasus Digest
North Caucasians fighting in Ukraine and remembering the Circassian Genocide
Elizaveta Chukahrova, an independent journalist from the North Caucasus, phones in to talk about the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the North…
- The Caucasus Digest
A view of the Turkish elections from Azerbaijan and Armenia
As Turkey holds a runoff presidential election after Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to gather 50% of the vote, many inside and outside of Turkey are left…
- The Caucasus Digest
Does a free press exist in Azerbaijan?
Azerbaijan has ranked 151st on this year's World Press Freedom Index — the 29th worst in the world. On this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, OC Media…
- The Caucasus Digest
The future of Nagorno-Karabakh
Tigran Grigoryan, a political analyst and head of the Regional Centre for Democracy and Security, joins Robin Fabbro to talk about the establishment of an…
- The Caucasus Digest
Tumso fakes his death and Shukhuti plays leloburti
Luiza Mchedlishvili talks about how Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a popular Chechen opposition blogger, reportedly his own death to fool Chechnya Head Ramzan Kadyrov…
- The Caucasus Digest
Insurgency in the North Caucasus and Azerbaijanis grow weary of conflict
Mark Youngman, the executive director of Threatologist and a senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, sheds light on the latest insurgent attacks in…
- The Caucasus Digest
Senior Georgian judges sanctioned by US and Russia's ban on Armenian dairy products
Mariam Nikuradze talks about the US sanctions against four senior Georgian judges for 'undermining the rule of law' in the country. She breaks down the judges'…
- The Caucasus Digest
Exclusionary nationalism in Azerbaijan and getting away with sexual harassment in Georgia
Bahruz Samadov, a researcher at Charles University in Prague, talks about nationalism in Azerbaijan and the reactions to his opinion piece about the…
- The Caucasus Digest
A looming conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and newborn trafficking in Georgia
Tigran Grigoryan, a political analyst and the head of the Regional Centre for Democracy and Security, phones in to talk about the growing tensions between…
- The Caucasus Digest
Gen Z shaking up Georgian politics and the greenwashing of the Lachin blockade
Nodar Rukhadze, the co-founder of the liberal activist Shame movement, discusses the participation of millennials and Gen Z in the foreign agent protests of…
- The Caucasus Digest
Inside Georgia's foreign agent law protests
Robin Fabbro and Mariam Nikuradze break down the 7–8 March protests against the Georgian foreign agent law, from the moments leading up to the massive…
- The Caucasus Digest
Boycotting the foreign agent law and sex as a weapon in Azerbaijan
Chai Khana's Executive Director, Lika Antadze, talks about her outlet's decision to boycott the foreign agent bill in Georgia, and what the bill could mean for…
- The Caucasus Digest
A year into the war in Ukraine — how Russia's invasion impacted the Caucasus
OC Media's staff get together to discuss the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the South Caucasus. Mariam Nikuradze talks about how the war became a…
- The Caucasus Digest
A foreign agent law in Georgia and how Azerbaijan's youth view neighbouring countries
Mariam Nikuradze discusses the foreign agent bill that is about to be submitted to parliament by the People's Power — a group of MPs who formally left the…
- The Caucasus Digest
Earthquake diplomacy and a new 'code of conduct' for journalists in Georgia's parliament
Ani Avetisyan discusses how the South Caucasus responded to the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. She breaks down how Armenia's offer of…
- The Caucasus Digest
The UNM's political stunt and mounting tensions between Baku and Tehran
Mariam Nikuradze talks about Levan Khabeishvili's election as the United National Movement's chair and recent statements about pulling the party out of the…
- The Caucasus Digest
Sports and 'the Path of Akhmat' and the political activists imprisoned in Azerbaijan
Loujaine Laamal, an MA student in geopolitics at the French Institute of Geopolitics, discusses Ramzan Kadyrov's politicisation of sports in Chechnya, and his…
- The Caucasus Digest
A power struggle in Stepanakert and Alt Info's busy week
More than a month into the closure of the Lachin corridor, Tigran Grigoryan, a political analyst and the head of the Regional Centre for Democracy and…
- The Caucasus Digest
How did the Caucasus fare in 2022?
Former senior editor Peter Liakhov joins Robin Fabbro and Mariam Nikuradze to discuss the OC Media team's predictions for the past year and how they had panned…
- The Caucasus Digest
Saakashvili's deteriorating health and Nagorno-Karabakh cut off
Tata Shoshiashvili discusses the recently released security footage of imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in his hospital room. Georgian…
- The Caucasus Digest
Lachin corridor closure and Georgia–Ukraine tensions
Arman Grigoryan, an associate professor of International Relations at Lehigh University, discusses the closure of the Lachin corridor and its implications for…
- The Caucasus Digest
Georgia's 'vague' gender recognition laws and a Russian customs checkpoint on Lachin corridor
Keti Bakhtadze, a strategic litigation lawyer at WISG, discusses last week's European Court of Human Rights ruling that deemed Georgia's gender recognition…
- The Caucasus Digest
HIV in Georgia and Nakhchivan's diminishing autonomy
Dustin Gilbreath, a non-resident senior fellow at CRRC Georgia, talks about the prevalence of HIV in Georgia and the stigma surrounding it, and a CRRC Georgia…
- The Caucasus Digest
Ivanishvili's baobab trees and the CSTO in Yerevan
After Kenya blocked the uprooting and transportation of eight baobab trees to former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's Shekvetili Dendrological…
- The Caucasus Digest
The fight for democracy in Azerbaijan and revisiting Chiatura
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Samir Sultanov, the general secretary of the Azerbaijani Democracy 1918 movement, talks about the arrest of…
- The Caucasus Digest
Ukraine recognises Chechnya's independence and Nagorno-Karabakh gets a new State Minister
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Tor, a fighter from the Chechen Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion fighting in Ukraine, phones in to talk about the…
- The Caucasus Digest
Domestic abuse in the North Caucasus and Stepanakert's mass protest
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Svetlana Anokhina, a women's right activist from Daghestan, about the recent escape of four…
- The Caucasus Digest
A deadly case of homophobia in Armenia and Basilashvili's acquittal
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Pink Armenia's communications director, Mamikon Hovsepyan, about the suicide of a young…
- The Caucasus Digest
Armenia's future in CSTO and Kaladze under fire
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Robin Fabbro talks to Yerevan-based political analyst Tigran Grigoryan about Armenia's relations with the CSTO…
- The Caucasus Digest
North Caucasians face discrimination at the Georgian border and femicide in Georgia
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Robin Fabbro talks to Bulat Khalilov and Timur Kodzoko, independent researchers from Nalchik and the founders of…
- The Caucasus Digest
Evidence of Azerbaijani war crimes and the SSG's involvement in the abduction of Mukhtarli
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Robin Fabbro talks to Ani Avetisyan and Ismi Aghayev about the latest accusations of war crimes levelled against…
- The Caucasus Digest
What does Russia's partial mobilisation mean for the Caucasus?
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Luiza Mchedlishvili about the anti-war protests that have taken place in the North Caucasus…
- The Caucasus Digest
Covering conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan and forests for sale in Racha
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Dominik Cagara about the international media's coverage of the 13-14 September war between…
- The Caucasus Digest
War on the Armenia–Azerbaijan border
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Ani Avetisyan and Ismi Aghayev about the Azerbaijani attack on Armenian military positions…
- The Caucasus Digest
Kadyrov's cancelled sabbatical & Starmus in Yerevan
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Luiza Mchedlishvili about Ramzan Kadyrov hinting at taking an 'indefinite break', and then…
- The Caucasus Digest
Georgia's vanishing suburban trains and Armenia's pricey early military discharge
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, OC Media's Editor-in-Chief, Robin Fabbro, talks to Mariam Nikuradze about her latest photostory about…
- The Caucasus Digest
Six months on — the impact of the war in Ukraine on the Caucasus
In this week's episode, Robin Fabbro speaks to OC Media's staff about the lasting impact Russia's invasion of Ukraine had on the South Caucasus six months into…
- The Caucasus Digest
Georgian Dream's Departed and sex tapes as weapons in Azerbaijan
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, OC Media's Editor-in-Chief, Robin Fabbro, talks to Ismi Aghayev about the latest sex tape scandal in the…
- The Caucasus Digest
Aliyev's turn West, Chechens 'de-Nazifying' Russia, and the evacuation of Lachin
In this week's episode, OC Media's Editor-in-Chief, Robin Fabbro, talks to Ismi Aghayev about Aliyev's overtures to the West. Read More: Ilham Aliyev looks…
- The Caucasus Digest
Kobakhidze's anti-Western rhetoric and the Nagorno-Karabakh clashes
In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, OC Media's Editor-in-Chief, Robin Fabbro, talks to Shota Kincha about the ruling Georgian Dream's series of…