iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

New resource for anyone studying Georgian politics: a dataset of protests across post-Soviet Georgia, from independence to today. Built for researchers, journalists, and the curious. #Georgia #SocialMovements

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Same aggressor. Same church. Orthodox victims both times. In 2008 the Moscow Patriarchate urged peace between "Orthodox brothers" in Georgia. By 2024 it called the war in Ukraine a "Holy War." What changed? I wrote an article in Religion, State & Society, here are some key takeaways:

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

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.

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

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...

open.spotify.com

When Politics Becomes Prophecy: Daniel DeHanas on Trump, Faith, and the New Apocalyptic

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

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...

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Civil.ge @civil.ge · 25/11/2025

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.

civil.ge

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

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Publika.ge @publikage.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

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

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

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

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

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...

kotimaa.fi

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.

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

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...

open.spotify.com

Beneath the Blessing: Gilead and the Weight of Grace

Religion in Praxis Conversation Series · Episode

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

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

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

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...

open.substack.com

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.

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

🧵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...

direct.mit.edu

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...

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

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.

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

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...

civil.ge

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

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

#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

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

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...

open.spotify.com

Literary Corner: "Silence" by Shusaku Endo

Religion in Praxis Conversation Series · Episode

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

An extremely helpful and informative article on Georgia's China shift #GeorgiaProtest

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

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?

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Every couple of decades, when Serbian students get angry, Georgian students start taking notes. Just saying #GeorgiaProtests

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

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...

nationalinterest.org

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.

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

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

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⚫️🐦‍⬛ 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 @theskyisnotblue.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

A Georgian woman embodies the resilience and spirit of the Georgian people. ❤️✊🔥 🇬🇪🇪🇺 #GeorgiaProtests #InternationalWomensDay

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

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.

m.youtube.com

War in Ukraine Enters Fourth Year - Analysis of Latest Developments & Global Implications

YouTube video by Center for Governance and Culture in Europe

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

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/...

lu.varbi.com

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

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

The changes in U.S. policy are not accidental or incidental—they are part of a systematic ideological shift. The administration is deliberately reshaping US's role in the world: From multilateralism to unilateralism. From deterrence to appeasement. From global leadership to national retrenchment 1/3

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Andreas Umland @umland.eurosky.social · 28/02/2025

The DC show should not distract from the core matter: Nuclear-weapon states - Russia, China, North Korea & now the US - are disrespecting the integrity of a non-nuclear-weapon state under the #NPT. The message that now also the US is sending to all nations: Better get your own WMDs! @nti.org

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

🧵1/ Ukraine is not just fighting for its survival—it’s the firewall preventing a geopolitical disaster that could spread across Europe. If Ukraine falls, Moldova is next. Then, Putin will test NATO’s Article 5 in the Baltics. Here is why I think so ⬇️ #Trump #Zelensky #Ukraine #Russia #NATO

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

We often think of Byzantium in terms of emperors, mosaics, and theological debates, but this episode with Dr. Thomas Arentzen uncovers a hidden Byzantine world: one where trees weren’t just resources but symbols, spiritual beings, and even moral teachers. Tune in! open.spotify.com/episode/2s5U...

open.spotify.com

Sacred Canopies: How Byzantine Trees Bridged Earth and Heaven

Religion in Praxis Conversation Series · Episode

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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

What better images of our imperial way of life that these? Our lebensraum: a sun that goldens glory, pleasure & wealth. Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

theguardian.com

Trump faces Truth Social backlash over AI video of Gaza with topless Netanyahu and bearded bellydancers

Users of president’s own social media site criticise video showing reimagined Gaza featuring Trump and Israeli PM sipping cocktails

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Three months. Every day. Georgians have taken to the streets, facing repression, arrests, and violence—yet they stand firm. Not just against Georgian Dream’s authoritarian drift, but for Europe, for democracy, for their future. For Ukraine. #GeorgiaProtests

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Guria, western Georgia, is buried under heavy snow. Day 2, no major government response. While the Georgian Dream government remains absent, ordinary citizens from Kutaisi and Tbilisi have stepped up, organizing their own rescue missions. #Georgia

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Three years of war. Three years of resistance. Three years of Europe at a crossroads. On this day in 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine—an unprovoked act of aggression that shattered peace in Europe. #Ukraine #Russianinvasion #Russianinvasion 1/4

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Olga Onuch @oonuch.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Make this @OfficialUoM press release viral “Trump … echoed Kremlin talking points, by falsely claiming …Zelensky’s approval rating stands at a mere 4%…polling…puts his approval rating at 63% - making him the most popular politician in the country.” www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/t...

manchester.ac.uk

Trump is making false claims about Zelensky's popularity, say experts

US President Donald Trump has once again echoed Kremlin talking points, by falsely claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s approval rating stands at a mere 4%. In reality, polling by ex...

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Alex Raufoglu @ralexdc.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

“Together, the Nordic-Baltic countries are the second-largest bilateral donors to Ukraine globally,” says Swedish Foreign Minister. "Close Nordic-Baltic cooperation is more important than ever. Our support to Ukraine is steadfast." www.government.se/press-releas...

government.se

Minister for Foreign Affairs meets with Lithuanian counterpart

On Wednesday 19 February, Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard received Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Kęstutis Budrys.

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

The five-month in-residence fellowship, apply if you are PhD and citizen of #Afghanistan, #Armenia, #Azerbaijan, #Belarus, #China (check details), #Georgia, #Kazakhstan, #Kyrgyzstan, #Moldova, #Mongolia, #Russia, #Tajikistan, #Turkmenistan, #Turkey, #Ukraine & #Uzbekistan cas.bg/en/2025-2026...

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

How does Donald Trump’s political style blur the line between fiction and reality, and why does this matter in today’s media-driven politics? My colleague from Lund University, Aaron James Goldman writes for our platform Religion in Praxis #Trump #WWE religioninpraxis.com/wrestling-wi...

religioninpraxis.com

Wrestling with Trump: Kayfabe and its Broader Applications

Consider the following moments of Donald J. Trump’s political career: On November 2, 2015, on an episode of Fox Sports’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Trump insults presidential primary opponen…

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

1/10 The European Parliament has passed a strongly worded resolution on Georgia’s deepening democratic crisis. It calls the Georgian Dream govt illegitimate, demands new elections, and urges sanctions on top officials. Here’s what this means for the #GeorgiaProtests

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

In my recent article, I am critiquing GOC’s dual role: cultural guardian vs. pluralism barrier. Legal-financial dominance perpetuates inequalities (funding, property, legal), marginalizing minorities. Yet, theology (perichoresis/kenosis) leverages pluralism www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

(Re)Conceptualizing Covenantal Pluralism in Georgia: Interfaith Dynamics on Orthodox Terms

This article critically examines the dual role of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) as both a cultural guardian of national identity and a barrier to covenantal pluralism in Georgia. Drawing on le...

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

1/10 New poll (Jan 2025) released by ISSA that confirms overwhelming public discontent with Georgian Dream. 82% say the country is in political crisis, 78% blame the govt. The regime is in a political minority—but does that mean change is coming? #GeorgiaProtest www.issa-georgia.com/ge/non-entre...

issa-georgia.com

საქართველოს მოსახლეობის განწყობების კვლევა საქართველოში მიმდინარე პროცესებთან დაკავშირებით, 2025

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

The art of selective journalism. The Euronews, agency co-funded by the EU, interviews Georgian Kobakhidze in Tbilisi while ignoring the massive protests outside and brutality of gvt. Not a single question about #GeorgiaProtests. Impressive commitment to looking the other way youtu.be/2X0mNR9ylRo?...

youtu.be

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze hopes Trump’s US will restore relations

YouTube video by euronews

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

1/10 When order is the only virtue, dissent becomes a dangerous anomaly: that's where we are in GEO with protesters/journalists jailed and persecuted. I observed 69 days of #Georgiaprotest and I argue 3 types of GD supporters are hegemonic, each with distinct motivations and responses to dissent.

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Tornike Metreveli @metreveli.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

What can fiction teach us about faith, power, and morality? We are launching Literary Corner, a new literature series on Religion in Praxis where together with Phil MacGillivray, we examine novels that wrestle with topics of religion, belief, doubt, and the institutions that shape our lives 👇

open.spotify.com

Literature Series: "Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan

Religion in Praxis Conversation Series · Episode

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