Part 1: Black Sea, Security and Russia-NATO relations

In the final episode of our special series on Black Sea security, Adam and Maciek discuss the most recent NATO meeting of heads of states in London. Adam interviews Victor Kipiani, chair of the Geocase think tank in Tbilisi (15.45), where they discuss implications for Georgia, the region and wider geopolitics.

In this episode, Adam interviews Emil Avdaliani, a Tbilisi-based expert and author with New Eastern Europe, on the role of geopolitics in the Black Sea region. They discuss Turkey-Russia relations, Chinese-American competition, the security risk of Iran’s proximity and Georgia’s place as an inter-connector for geopolitics.

This episode features an interview with Marta Ardashelia of Sova.News – a Russian language portal based in Georgia. Adam and Maciek introduce the episode with a brief roundup of some of the most important developments in the region, including a look at the Normandy Summit in France and recent developments in Belarusian-Russian integration.Maciek then interviews Marta (17.35) and they discuss the challenge of Russian disinformation in Georgia, the rise of anti-western narratives in Russian-language media and how to combat it with a project like Sova.News.

How does the situation of extremism look in Georgia and the South Caucasus? How can these countries deal with returning members of ISIS and the challenge of their re-integration? In this episode, our co-hosts Adam and Maciek explore the current outlook for Georgia in the realm of security in the wider region of the South Caucasus which also touches the Middle East. They also discuss Georgia’s view of NATO ahead of the high-level NATO meeting in London in December 2019. The episode finishes with Maciek’s interview with Giorgi Goguadze, director at the Georgian Center for Strategy and Development in Tbilisi with a discussion on these issues as well as the situation with violent extremism in the country and region.Music featured in the podcast licensed under the Creative Commons license 3.0/4.0:Intro: Indie Rock by Scott Holmes: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/Road_Trip_Indie_Rock/Indie_Rock_1327Around the Cliffs by Lobo Loco is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 License: https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco/My_Yearnings/Arround_the_Cliffs_ID_1202

In this episode Adam interviews Egor Kuroptev, head of the Free Russia Foundation’s Tbilisi office. They discuss issues on Georgian-Russian relations, the ongoing borderization of the so-called South Ossetia (Tskhinvali) territory and the current threat to Georgian security as a result of the frozen conflicts.Music featured in the podcast licensed under the Creative Commons license 3.0/4.0:Intro: Indie Rock by Scott Holmes –http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/Road_Trip_Indie_Rock/Indie_Rock_1327Sometimes by Frequency Decree – https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Frequency_Decree/Dubbed/Sometimes_1733

In this first part of the series, Adam catches up with Dominik Jankowski – a Brussels-based expert on security who gives an overview from the NATO perspective. Adam and Dominik discuss the Black Sea, Georgia’s co-operation with NATO, NATO response to the situation in Ukraine as well as relations with Russia.Music featured in the podcast licensed under the Creative Commons license 3.0/4.0:Intro: Indie Rock by Scott Holmes –http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/Road_Trip_Indie_Rock/Indie_Rock_1327Siesta by Jahzzar https://www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/Travellers_Guide/Siesta