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Nate Ostiller
22 Posts
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Nate joined OC Media as an editor after a year at The Kyiv Independent, where he covered Ukraine, Russia, and the South Caucasus. He has a background in grant writing and reporting on post-Soviet geopolitics, with a focus on conflict-sensitive journalism and human rights.
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Georgian Dream’s ‘alternative facts’ machine

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As public backlash — and condemnation from Georgia’s traditional allies — over the government’s EU U-turn continues, the Georgian Dream government and its media affiliates have increasingly tried to bend reality to suit their purposes. This is not a new tactic for the government and its media supporters like TV Imedi and PosTV, but it has reached jarring levels of cognitive dissonance amid the ongoing protest movement. From my perspective as a journalist, whose primary goal is to cover, as bes

A mandarin tree. For illustrative purposes. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Abkhazia

Economic crisis looms in Abkhazia amid electricity shortages, ban of mandarins

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The fallout from Abkhazia’s political crisis, which led to the downfall of President Aslan Bzhaniya in late November, has since evolved into one that impacts the economy.  Over the last week, Abkhazia was hit with twin economic setbacks stemming from Russia, its primary financial benefactor.  On 6 December, Russia banned the import of mandarins from Abkhazia, one of its top exports. Following this, electricity shortages, exacerbated by the prevalence of illegal crypto mining and the loss

The protest in Tbilisi. Photo: Salome Khvedelidze/OC Media
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Explainer | After a month of simmering protests, Georgia erupted: why now?

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At a moment when it appeared as if demonstrations against electoral fraud and democratic backsliding had fallen into a feeling of bitter acceptance, protests in Georgia exploded suddenly on 28 November after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the government was suspending its bid for EU accession until 2028. But why did the government choose to take such an unpopular move? And why was this the trigger for such mass discontent? In Tbilisi and other cities and towns across the country

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