Responding to outside criticism, Georgian Dream has blamed the opposition adding to the tension ahead of October's parliamentary election.

In the context of new levels of co-operation between western-aligned countries in the Black Sea region, NATO should focus on pursuing meaningful actions with regional partners that share its vision. At the same time, the Alliance should take advantage of every opportunity to make the region a platform for decreasing conflict and accommodating competing interests.

The recent NATO-Georgia Public Diplomacy Forum held in October 2019 rightly underlined the need for new ideas, skills and partnerships. It also stressed the need for viable security structures that are capable of meeting modern challenges. These needs are especially relevant when considering the current geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Black Sea region.

Public discourse in Armenia today remains beset with problems and the behaviour of the authorities is hardly a role model. If the government does not commit to improving the quality of discourse and its own behaviour, the country may be faced with a long-term challenge affecting other areas of public life.

Despite highlighting its success in dealing with the pandemic, the Georgian Dream government has recognised the possibility of losing public and external support ahead of the parliamentary elections.

The Kremlin unleashed a multi-channel counter-messaging campaign after it had been made clear Russia’s GRU was behind the attack.

Interview with Hatia Jinjikhadze, Deputy Director at the Open Society Georgia Foundation. Interviewer: Mackenzie Baldinger.

It has been two years since Nikol Pashinyan has come to power after the Velvet Revolution in Armenia. In this episode Adam catches up with Richard Giragosian to discuss how much has changed in the country and how much has not.

The government of the Georgian Dream has been fairly successful with its gradual approach to tackling the pandemic. At the same time it found itself pitted against one of the most trusted institutions in the country, the Georgian Orthodox Church.

The traditional Georgian media method of framing issues through a partisan political lens has failed to attract viewers and the media is struggling to find its role in the evolving situation. But a public distaste for party politics and leadership battles during this pandemic is not the only challenge facing media newsrooms. Media content, TV programming structures and income-generating models are all increasingly being tested and strained by COVID-19.

The recent regulations in Armenia contradict the political leadership’s commitments to democratisation and may be damaging to the country’s progress.

The COVID-19 pandemic may see the expansion of the strategic partnership between Georgia and the West to include sectors that were previously outside of traditional understandings of security.

Armenia may choose to draw on the legacy of its own long history, as opposed to the Soviet legacy narratives. Doing so will help the country through institutional development and reforms.