Poland

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Armenia

Polish President Duda’s visit to Armenia sparks political tussle with Azerbaijan

by Aytan Farhadova

•2 min read

The recent visit of Polish President Andrzej Duda to Armenia sparked a minor political crisis in Polish–Azerbaijani relations after Duda included a brief stop at an observation point of the EU Mission in Armenia. On Wednesday, Duda’s office shared news about the trip to the observation point, located in the village of Karki, noting that the deputy head of the mission is a Polish national, Marek Kuberski. The mission was established in February 2023 with a preliminary two-year timeline,

Ramzan Kadyrov responding to the Polish PM in a video on Telegram.

Chechnya

Ramzan Kadyrov: ‘where was Europe when we fought for independence?’

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•2 min read

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has hit back at the Polish Prime Minister’s suggestion that Chechnya ‘deserves independence’, accusing Europe of failing to support Chechens during their fight for independence during the 1990s. In a video on his Telegram channel on Sunday, Kadyrov claimed he was ‘an ardent Ichkerian’. ‘It was you who did not allow us to build our state’, he said. Kadyrov, along with his father, Akhmat Kadyrov, defected from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria to Russia d

Georgian homophobic protesters separated from an anti-violence rally by police with the leader of the Polish conservatives, Jarosław Kaczyński in the background. Illustration: Dominik K Cagara/OC Media.

European Union

Opinion | Will Georgia follow Poland in the global right-wing revolution?

by Dominik K Cagara

•5 min read

Many Georgians rushed to blame Russia’s interference for this week’s homophobic violence in Tbilisi. However, Poland’s democratic decline offers a better framework to understand what the future holds for Georgia. When a priest from the Ertatsminda Church, some 50 km west of Tbilisi, found out I was Polish, he became very enthusiastic. He told me he loved the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, for declaring that marriage was a union between man and woman, and for fighting against the ‘LGBT agend

Chechnya

Chechen blogger survives ‘assassination attempt’ in Europe

by OC Media

•4 min read

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a prominent blogger and critic of Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov, has reportedly survived an attempt on his life in his flat in a European city. Both he and his attacker remain in hospital. Abdurakhmanov, whose YouTube channel is followed by 260,000 people, is widely known for his harsh criticism of the Chechen authorities. In March 2019, the speaker of the Chechen Parliament, Magomed Daudov, declared a blood feud against him. Swedish-based organisation the Vayfond Ch

Mine workers inside the Mindeli coal mine in Tkibuli, Georgia. Photo: Lana Kokaia/OC Media.

Feature Stories

Stuck between a rock and a hard place — the miners of Tkibuli

by Lana Kokaia

•7 min read

When an explosion in the Mindeli mine in the west-Georgian town of Tkibuli killed four and injured six, coal mining in the town briefly shut down. In the interim, some miners have sought work abroad, while others stayed to work for new owners. In either case, the miners found little respite. Khvicha Gabunia, 32, is an economist by training. Ten years ago, after failing to find a job in his field, he started working in the Mindeli mine — the only operating mine in Tkibuli, and its largest em

asylum

A Chechen refugee Poland wants to give up to Russia

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•9 min read

Mass executions, murders, abductions, rape, torture, intimidation, extortion, forged criminal proceedings, monstrous corruption — this is what Ramzan Kadyrov’s Chechnya looks like today. The Russian republic is completely disconnected from the Russian legal system — with the consent of the Russian authorities. This article is a partner post written by Małgorzata Łojkowska. The original version first appeared in Polish on Polityka, on 6 July 2019. Nurmagomed did not know if he would mak

asylum

Chechen dissident YouTuber denied asylum in Poland

by Shota Kincha

•3 min read

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a popular Chechen YouTuber and an ardent critic of the Chechen government has been denied political asylum in Poland. Abdurakhmanov told OC Media that his request was turned down ‘based on the recommendation of Poland’s Internal Security Agency — who identified me as a threat to their country’. ‘Of course, they are not explaining why exactly I am a threat’, he added. Abdurakhmanov wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday that the Polish authorities had ‘declined t