Tornike Metreveli

RSF: Press Freedom Violations in Georgia Reach ‘Unprecedented’ Levels, 600 Attacks in One Year - Civil Georgia Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based media watchdog, said press freedom violations in Ge

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based media watchdog, said press freedom violations in Georgia have reached “unprecedented levels,” documenting 600 attacks on the press in one year.

1/ The government propaganda channel TV Imedi aired a story describing Georgian online media, already prosecuted and harassed by Georgian Dream under several laws, as “an underground network that illegally receives millions.”

#TerrorinGeorgia

I doubt the very existence of that idea ('church would remain non-political'). GOC has never been non-political. I don't think they know how to function without political actorness

It depends how you define a crisis.

All one needs to know about the Ukraine "peace plan"

Venäjän ortodoksikirkko on osa Kremlin vallankäyttöä, arvioi tutkija Venäjällä vallitsevassa taivaallisessa reaalipolitiikassa Venäjä ei ole vain valtio, vaan kulttuuri jota on puolustettava, toteaa tutkija Tornike Metreveli.

My interview with a Finnish journalist Outi Salovaara on how religion works in the Russian foreign policy, what it achieves and why this matters for the Nordic security architecture

www.kotimaa.fi/venajan-orto...

The Bread We Share: What a Border Village Taught Me About the Potential for Covenantal Pluralism in Georgia Each time I found myself in Sarpi, that windswept coastal village perched between the Black Sea and the forested cliffs of the Georgian-Turkish border, it felt like more than a retreat. It was, in som...

Here is a brief summer reading on what a small Georgian village taught me about faith, power, and pluralism
globalengage.org/portico/the-...

Beneath the Blessing: Gilead and the Weight of Grace Religion in Praxis Conversation Series · Episode

In this episode, we look into Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Gilead, uncovering how its epistolary form becomes a vessel for theological reflection, intergenerational reckoning, and luminous grace. Tune in via Spotify and Apple!
open.spotify.com/episode/3Xtk...

7/ Where else is religion transforming?
Migration. Immigrant faith isn’t just about survival. It’s innovation. Think: Thai Buddhist women in Norway or Georgian Orthodox women in Italy. They’re not anomalies. They’re models of how religion actually works. Read more on the link!

6/ We assumed secular platforms were neutral. They’re not.
Algorithms shape spiritual journeys. Platforms don’t just distribute religion—they’re becoming religious spaces themselves. We’re only starting to grasp what that means.

5/ And in stranger corners of the internet, we find a new kind of preacher: Enter Andrew Tate, and the rise of “political male wellness influencers.” They blend masculinity, theology, algorithms, and grievance.
It’s not just content. It’s a new kind of digital religion.

4/ What’s blowing up old theories fastest? 👉 Digital religion. Research shows Gen Z Muslims creating augmented faith experiences online—not replacing their religion but amplifying it.

3/ Religious people aren't withdrawing—they're reading the room. They know when to speak religiously and when to code-switch. This isn’t weak faith—it’s social intelligence.
Maybe secularization theory has been asking the wrong question all along.

2/ We’ve long assumed religion was something you could contain—in private life, church buildings, or personal beliefs.

But new research shows religion doesn’t stay put. It flows, shifts, and adapts—not by fading, but by becoming smarter.

Beyond the Sacred and Secular: Where the Sociology of Religion is Heading Next If you’d told a sociologist of religion fifty years ago that some of the most vibrant religious communities would exist primarily in digital spaces, that young men in secular Scandinavia woul…

I just got back from #ISSR2025 in Kaunas. Here’s what I learned. ⬇️

Research unpacks:
1. Theological reframing of sovereignty: How ecclesiastical claims to authority transcend territorial borders;
2. Operationalization into politics: Mechanisms translating doctrinal positions into policy advocacy (e.g., migration, human rights, diaspora engagement).

Finally the validation for ASEEES has come. Now it joins Harvard's Ukraine Institute and other "undesirables"

Update: Bachiashvili was arrested
www.rferl.org/amp/bidzina-...

This Is Not a Concert: Art, Protest, and the Practice of Independence Each year on May 26, Georgia marks its independence — a commemoration that risks becoming hollow if severed from the struggles that sustain it.

Today Georgia celebrates Independence Day. In this blog I reflect on what does it mean to be “independent” in a society where dissent is criminalized, artists are arrested, and political youth are beaten in the streets?
#Georgiaprotest #Georgia #art #TbilisiOpenAir
open.substack.com/pub/tornikem...

Putin's nostalgia - in his own words on numerous occasions - for the Soviet Union is not an explanatory factor which I find both bizarre and pathetic at the same time

13/ The article ultimately offers a sobering implication: explaining strategic motives is not the same as excusing aggression, but ignoring them may hinder both deterrence and diplomacy.

12/ But how do we distinguish between defensive “windows of vulnerability” and opportunistic wars of conquest cloaked in security language?

11/ Further, “strategic empathy” becomes a retroactive justification: the West should have understood Russia’s fears even if those fears were exaggerated, aggressive, or manipulative.

10/ This makes the analysis circular: the case doesn’t test the theory; the theory frames the case. Alternative motives (imperial nostalgia, domestic legitimation, ideology) are waved off, not refuted. Why so?

9/ The article’s strength—coherent theory + lots of data—is also its weakness. It assumes the preventive war theory is valid and uses it to interpret the facts.

8/ So what’s the payoff? If Russia acted preventively, the West bears partial political responsibility for failing to anticipate Russia’s threat perceptions—even if not moral responsibility for the war.

7/ The risk? This starts to sound like “Russia had no choice”—that’s dangerous logic. You can explain why someone jumps off a cliff without pretending they were pushed.

6/ What about Putin’s imperial nostalgia? His obsession with Ukraine as “not a real country”? The domestic politics of autocracy? These get honorable mentions—but are dismissed, not explored.

5/ Posen makes a methodologically explicit choice: the theory is treated as “strong” and the case is interpreted through it. This is a “case-explaining” approach rather than a test of the theory.

4/ The article marshals a huge body of evidence: diplomatic statements, security doctrines, training exercises, arms transfers, etc.—all showing that NATO–Ukraine ties were deepening.