Shota Kincha

377 Posts

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After fleeing a not-so-promising academic career and a disastrous attempt at being a bisexual activist, Shota is now a grumpy staff writer covering Georgia-related topics at OC Media. He is still int

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Ranking Georgia’s political parties by gender balance in the 2024 elections

by Shota Kincha

•5 min read

Georgia’s parliamentary elections on 26 October, unlike the previous vote, will be held without any gender quotas. As women’s representation in Georgian politics remains an issue, we have examined the electoral lists of all the major parties and groupings and ranked them based on how many women they included — and how highly they were placed. The ruling Georgian Dream party pushed through mandatory gender quotas ahead of the 2020 parliamentary and 2021 local elections in an apparent bid to pro

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Deep fakes ‘target’ Georgian opposition on TikTok ahead of elections

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

A Georgian elections watchdog has published a report outlining the increased use of AI technology in the pre-election period, including the creation of deep fakes based on opposition politicians. On Tuesday, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) reported that anonymous actors had used AI technologies to forge the voices of Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili and For Georgia chair Giorgi Gakharia in videos shared on social media. According to ISFED, one such a

Kakha Kaladze. Image from the screengrab of TV channel Kavkasia’s footage.

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Georgian Dream’s Kaladze labels German deputy foreign minister ‘ordinary Kubilius in a dress’

by Shota Kincha

•3 min read

Georgian Dream General Secretary Kakha Kaladze has called Germany’s deputy foreign minister an ‘ordinary Kubilius in a dress’ after she said that his party is ‘creating obstacles’ on the path to EU membership. ‘I don’t know who that lady is. She’s just an ordinary Kubilius in a dress,’ Kaladze remarked on Monday, in response to criticism from Anna Lührmann, Germany’s Minister of State for Europe and Climate. He was comparing her to former Lithuanian Prime Minister and current MEP Andrius Kubil

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili with the Wardrop Baton during the eighth round of the dialogue at Lancaster House in 2023. Official image.

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

UK suspends ‘strategic dialogue’ and defence talks with Georgia

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

The UK has announced it has suspended a number dialogue formats with Georgia, citing the government’s anti-democratic actions. In an interview with the Georgian news agency IPN published on Tuesday, the British Ambassador to Georgia, Gareth Ward, said the move came in response to democratic backsliding and anti-Western rhetoric by the Georgian government. He said the UK had frozen the Wardrop Dialogue, an annual British-Georgian strategic dialogue format, cancelled high-level talks betwee

United Neutral Georgia. Screengrab from Imedia live broadcast.

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Georgian pro-government group calls for ‘cleansing’ of opposition voters

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

The pro-government United Neutral Georgia group has advocated for opposition voters to be identified and prosecuted after Georgia’s 26 October parliamentary elections. On Tuesday morning, the group stated that Georgia remained afflicted by ‘revolutionary scenarios’, ‘pseudo-liberalism’, and ‘polarisation’ imposed from abroad. They said that Georgia’s opposition forces were ‘rootless spies’ supported by their ‘outside patrons’ as well as Georgians who vote for them in the elections. ‘When

Mamuka Khazaradze (left) being interviewed by POSTV. Screengrab from POSTV video.

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Armenophobic attacks by pro-government media target Georgian opposition leader

by Shota Kincha

•3 min read

Pro-government TV channel POSTV has launched a series of Armenophobic attacks against the chair of the Lelo party and leading figure in the broader Strong Georgia opposition alliance, Mamuka Khazaradze. On 11 October, POSTV released a video showing an unnamed reporter pressing Khazaradze with accusations that he was concealing his supposed Armenian heritage. The on-the-spot interview was evidently recorded on 10 October, when Khazaradze and Strong Georgia were holding a campaign event in Tel

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