1/ Last night Russian missiles set fire to the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra — the 11th-century heart of East Slavic Orthodoxy, the very "Holy Rus" Moscow claims to defend.
Tornike Metreveli
@metreveli.bsky.social
Associate Professor@Lund University. Editor & Podcast Host @ religioninpraxis.com. PI 🇸🇪of CHANSE-HERA RELIDEM project. Prev. Fellow @Harvard Ukraine Research Institute '23 & Harvard Davis Center '16-17. EU Prize Winner for Journalism '22 for https://toc.ge
I talked with Dr. Dan DeHanas to examine the spiritual architecture of contemporary populism. Dan argues that what we are witnessing in 2024 and 2025 is not simply politics dressed up in religious language - it is something qualitatively different open.spotify.com/episode/2GZc...
When Politics Becomes Prophecy: Daniel DeHanas on Trump, Faith, and the New Apocalyptic
open.spotify.com
We created a data repository of Georgian protests for last 30 years. Numerous filters, categories, timelines. In Georgian and English. See more at geoprotests.org #georgiaprotest
პროტესტი დამოუკიდებელ საქართველოში
"პროტესტი დამოუკიდებელ საქართველოში" თავს უყრის წინააღმდეგობის გამოცდილებას, რომელმაც დამოუკიდებელი საქართველოს ისტორია შექმნა
geoprotests.org
My podcast Religion in Praxis grew 56% in 2025, with a 999% jump in new listeners. Zero ad spend. The audience is international, led by US, Sweden, Germany, UK, and Australia (first time in top 5). open.spotify.com/show/4WUyGvm...
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.
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
civil.ge
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
All one needs to know about the Ukraine "peace plan"
Timothy Snyder@timothysnyder.bsky.social · 8mo agoWe are in a bizarre moment of diplomatic history. The purported "peace plan" that appeared a few days ago beings in Russian unreality and American weakness. Demanding everything of Ukraine and nothing of Russia, its purpose is imperialism and profiteering. snyder.substack.com/p/russian-un...
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...
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.
kotimaa.fi
Here is a brief summer reading on what a small Georgian village taught me about faith, power, and pluralism globalengage.org/portico/the-...
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...
globalengage.org
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...
Beneath the Blessing: Gilead and the Weight of Grace
Religion in Praxis Conversation Series · Episode
open.spotify.com
I just got back from #ISSR2025 in Kaunas. Here’s what I learned. ⬇️
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…
religioninpraxis.com
Finally the validation for ASEEES has come. Now it joins Harvard's Ukraine Institute and other "undesirables"
Meduza in English@meduza.io · last yr.In a serious blow to scholars, the Russian authorities have outlawed the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) as an "undesirable organization." The designation poses legal risks for the organization's 3,200 members when researching in Russia. meduza.io/en/news/2025...
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...
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.
open.substack.com
🧵Was Russia's invasion of Ukraine a "preventive war"? Professor Barry R. Posen, MIT Professor argues that basically yes. Here are his arguments—and some problematic aspects of this article written in a major academic journal of IR published by @mitpress.bsky.social 👇 direct.mit.edu/isec/article...
Putin's Preventive War: The 2022 Invasion of Ukraine
Abstract. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine is consistent with the logic of preventive war. States often initiate wars because they fear the consequences of a shifting balance of military power and...
direct.mit.edu
In Georgia, an activist - whom I know from shared friends for 18 years - was attacked with the same shade of ink used in political intimidation tactics across Russia. The message is clear—and chilling.
BREAKING: Georgian Dream just passed sweeping changes to the Law on Grants—requiring foreign donors to obtain gov’t approval before funding local orgs. What does this mean for civil society and research in #Georgia 🇬🇪? A short thread. 👇 civil.ge/archives/676...
GD Rubber Stamps Legislation Forcing Donors to Seek Its Approval for Grant Awards - Civil Georgia
The Georgian Dream parliament today, April 16, rubber-stamped changes to the country's Law on Grants
civil.ge
My take on #Georgiaprotests and the necessity of a paradigm shift
After the Square: Why Georgian Protests Need a Paradigm Shift
“If I stop showing up, I feel like I’m betraying everyone else still standing there and sitting in the jail.”– A personal communication with a protestor, Tbilisi, March 2024
tornikemetreveli.substack.com
#GeorgiaProtests have entered their 100+th day. For many, it no longer feels like resistance is working. Protesting has become an existential act—not to win, but to not betray oneself and political prisoners. But to move forward, the paradigm must shift. Here's my speculative answer how 🧵 #Georgia
If God is silent in the face of suffering, does this mean his absence - or is his silence a form of presence itself? In this episode of my podcast Religion in Praxis, together with my good Phil MacGillivray, we discuss Shusaku Endo's fascinating novel "Silence" 👇 open.spotify.com/episode/583i...
Literary Corner: "Silence" by Shusaku Endo
Religion in Praxis Conversation Series · Episode
open.spotify.com
An extremely helpful and informative article on Georgia's China shift #GeorgiaProtest
Foreign Policy Research Institute@fpri.bsky.social · last yr.Read the analysis by Miro Popkhadze on China's #Georgia gamble.
The U.S. has spent three decades lecturing former Soviet states on democracy and urging protests against authoritarian regimes (nearly at all costs)—so where is that massive protest now as its own democracy gradually erodes?
Every couple of decades, when Serbian students get angry, Georgian students start taking notes. Just saying #GeorgiaProtests
🟢 The Kremlin denies sovereignty and territorial integrity not only to Ukraine but also to Georgia. But unlike Ukraine, the ruling Georgian Dream party follows the Russian playbook and uses the Russian threat to maintain authoritarian power, writes @sonjaschiffers.bsky.social 👇
Georgia and Russia: “On the same train” with the occupant | Heinrich Böll Stiftung | Brussels office - European Union
The Kremlin denies sovereignty and territorial integrity not only to Ukraine but also to Georgia. But unlike Ukraine, the ruling Georgian Dream party follows the Russian playbook and uses the Russian ...
eu.boell.org
Beware of Russia's so-called peace talks. Any deal limiting Ukraine’s defense or forcing premature elections risks turning Ukraine into a vassal state. The West must not fall for this trap, write Professors Popova and Shevel #Ukraine #Russia nationalinterest.org/feature/be-w...
Be Wary Of Russia’s Call For Negotiations
While peace is a net positive, there are legitimate fears of Russian manipulation in negotiations to create terms suitable for only Putin.
nationalinterest.org
100 days of #GeorgiaProtest. Given Georgia’s history of sudden political shifts (e.g., the Rose Revolution) and the public’s relatively low tolerance for overt injustice, it is risky for any government to dismiss the significance of a protest movement simply because it has seemingly plateaued 1/4
Anonymous@youranoncentral.bsky.social · last yr.The 100th day of resistance against oligarchy and Kremlin collaboration in Georgia. #3E #GeorgiaProtests #EndOligarchy
A Georgian woman embodies the resilience and spirit of the Georgian people. ❤️✊🔥 🇬🇪🇪🇺 #GeorgiaProtests #InternationalWomensDay
I was part of this interview series on the Russian war over Ukraine. I discussed several speculative scenarios about the implications of thr US foreign policy shifts towards #Ukraine and #NATO, Article 5, Moldova and more. I am somewhere around min 53.
War in Ukraine Enters Fourth Year - Analysis of Latest Developments & Global Implications
YouTube video by Center for Governance and Culture in Europe
m.youtube.com
Watch Meduza's latest video overview — illustrated with animated maps — of what’s happening on the front lines as politicians in Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S. prepare to discuss potential peace terms.
Ukrainian troops try to seize initiative from Russia For first time in months, invasion forces find themselves on backfoot in some areas — Meduza
While the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. continue to argue about and expound on their readiness for negotiations, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to seize the initiative from the…
buff.ly
Do you have a burning desire to dissect religious identities in democracies? Can you tolerate a supervisor (me) who’s mildly obsessed with the RELIDEM project? Good news: Lund University is hiring a PhD student to join my team (apply or share please). lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Doctoral student in European Studies within the project RELIDEM
The doctoral programme The doctoral position is connected to the project “Religious Realignments and Democratic Resilience: A Comparative Study of Religious Responses to (geo)political Crises (RELID
lu.varbi.com