Please join the Russia and Eurasia Program at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University for a panel discussion with leading Georgian experts Malkhaz Toria, Zviad Adzinbaia, Lasha Kveseladze, and Marine Chitashvili. The event will focus on the global implications of the ongoing political crisis in Georgia. Arik Burakovsky will moderate the conversation, which will explore not only Georgia’s domestic political and electoral dynamics but also its geopolitical position and foreign relations.

The event is open to the public. Please register via the Microsoft Form here to attend the event in person or let us know if you would like to attend virtually. We will provide you with the Zoom details in your confirmation email message. Please contact us with any questions you might have about the event or if you would like to submit discussion questions for the speaker in advance. 

Visitors to the Medford/Somerville campus are welcome to park in the Dowling Garage or Cousens Parking Lot. Visitors may pay for their parking sessions via the web portal or payment kiosks. Please contact us with any questions you might have about the event. 

Questions:

• What does the disputed 2024 parliamentary election reveal about the state of democracy in Georgia? How credible are the allegations of electoral fraud?
• How has the protest movement over the last four months reshaped Georgia’s political landscape? What do its scale and persistence indicate about civil society’s role in democratic resilience?
• Has the government’s response to these protests, including police crackdowns and opposition arrests, undermined the rule of law? What are the implications for human rights and judicial independence?
• How has growing political polarization affected Georgian society? Is it leading to greater civic engagement, political apathy, or deeper societal divisions? What roles do traditional media and social media play in shaping public opinion in Georgia? How have propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and polarized news outlets influenced perceptions of the protests and Georgia’s geopolitical choices?
• To what extent are these events a reflection of Georgia’s geopolitical struggle between Russia and the West? Is the ruling Georgian Dream party tacitly or overtly aligning with Moscow, or is it maintaining a strategic balancing act?
• How have external actors—Russia, the EU, NATO, the United States, and Georgia’s regional neighbors—responded to the ongoing political crisis in Georgia? What are the implications of Georgia’s recent decision to freeze EU accession talks until 2028? How have the diminished focus on democracy promotion under Trump and recent cutbacks to U.S. foreign aid affected Georgia’s civil society and media organizations?
• How do these events compare to past political crises in Georgia, such as the 2003 Rose Revolution and the 2008 war with Russia? What lessons from history can help predict Georgia’s political trajectory?
• What are the possible pathways to resolving the political standoff? Could negotiations, electoral reforms, or international mediation lead to a compromise?

Speakers:

	Lasha Kveseladze is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, focusing on open-source investigative techniques and Russian influence in the Caucasus. A seasoned investigative journalist with 20 years of experience, he co-founded the Journalistic Data Processing Centre and created "Connections," a tool for exposing hidden links between business and government. He previously worked at Mtavari Channel in Georgia, following a career at Rustavi2, where he witnessed firsthand government pressure on independent media. He also lectures on investigative reporting at various universities. His investigative work has focused on corruption, abuse of power, and criminal cases, including femicide and homicide. He has uncovered financial irregularities among high-ranking officials, leading to the cancellation of a €65 million government tender. His award-winning investigation into the abduction of Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli exposed deleted surveillance footage, revealing suspicious circumstances. More recently, Lasha has focused on Russian sanctions evasion schemes and the financial backing of Kremlin-linked far-right groups in Georgia.
	Zviad Adzinbaia is a Ph.D. candidate at The Fletcher School, specializing in disinformation, digital resilience, and international security. He is the Co-Founder of LEADx, a multinational leadership accelerator and summit based in Tbilisi, engaging leaders from more than 20 countries in partnership with Fletcher’s International Security Studies Program and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. From 2022-2023, he led Ukraine’s Digital Diplomacy Task Force, working with Google, Meta, and X accounts to counter Russia’s wartime disinformation. His insights have appeared on BBC and CNN and in The Boston Globe, and he is a recognized expert in digital diplomacy and information integrity. Zviad is a Senior Advisor at HarrisX, a Washington-based research and technology firm focusing on global engagement, AI, and policy research. He also leads Fletcher’s inaugural “Tools and Weapons Symposium on Digital Diplomacy & Information Integrity,” advancing discussions on the intersection of technology and global security. His career spans roles at the European Parliament, NATO Defense College, and global consulting firms. At NATO, he authored a widely cited report on Black Sea security and Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics. A Fulbright Senior Scholar, Zviad holds an M.A. from The Fletcher School and is a Sarah Scaife & Lynde and Harry Bradley Doctoral Scholar.
	Malkhaz Toria is an Associate Professor of history and the director of the Memory Studies Center in the Caucasus at Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia). He is also a doctoral candidate in sociology at the New School for Social Research (New York City, USA). His research interests focus on theories of history and the epistemology of historical knowledge; Tsarist and Soviet imperial legacies and the politics of identity, belonging, and boundary-making in contemporary Georgia; politics of memory and dealing with the totalitarian past in post-Soviet societies; modern museology and memorial culture; the instrumentalization of history and politics of exclusion and ethnic cleansing in Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia/Tskhinvali. He has held fellowships (Fulbright, DAAD, OSF, etc.) at the New School for Social Research, Central European University (CEU), Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung (ZfL), Humboldt University of Berlin, University of California, Berkeley, the Harriman Institute of Columbia University and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University.
	Dr. Marine Chitashvili is a professor of psychology at Tbilisi State University and a visiting scholar with the Program on Georgian Studies at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University for Spring 2025. She received her Ph.D. and later habilitation from the Institute of Psychology, Georgian Academy of Science. She is the author of three books, including Psychology of Religiosity: Empirical Studies, which explores the personality characteristics and social values of Georgian Orthodox believers. She was the founder of the Center for Social Sciences think-tank and its executive director from 2003-2013, with subsequent affiliation as a senior fellow. She was director general of the National Science Foundation Georgia from 2014-2017. Her research interests are authoritarianism, personality, and their social dimensions. She leads an interdisciplinary team of young researchers to explore the personal and social factors of authoritarianism in transformative societies using 1996-2018 data from the World Value Survey on Georgia on democratization, religion, and inequality.