Please join the International Security Studies Program at The Fletcher School for a conversation with Nika Gvaramia, a founder of Georgia’s primary opposition television network, Mtavari Arkhi, and a leading voice against Vladimir Putin’s malign influence across the Caucasus region. He will be joining us just after his travel to New York to receive the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, recognizing his significant contributions to promoting freedom of speech and democratic ideals. His fight for press freedoms in Georgia resulted in a 3-1/2-year prison sentence orchestrated by Moscow-leaning supporters of Georgia’s ruling political party. The European Parliament and U.S. Helsinki Commission denounced his imprisonment, and Amnesty International said his sentence was “a politically motivated silencing of a dissenting voice.” Under pressure, the president pardoned him this past summer. Among his new missions is countering Russian hostile influence in his nation and across the Caucasus region, becoming a respected force opposing Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

He holds a law degree from Emory University and, following the Rose Revolution but before the current political party came to power, he served Georgia as minister of justice, and as education minister.