The Russian artist Andrei Molodkin’s new project is called “Dead Man’s Switch.” The dead man in question is Julian Assange; the switch will be set off if he dies in prison, destroying millions of dollars worth of artwork. nyer.cm/aJoKQxn

“For Russia it’s clear. Either as an artist you’re protesting or you’re decorating the regime. Both exist. An in-between does not.”

Revisit this profile of Russian artists in exile by Nadia Beard. codastory.com/rewriting-hist…

A new recording by the 97-year-old American pianist Ruth Slenczynska piqued Nadia Beard’s interest. If the past few decades of classical music were an era that fetishised the child prodigy, have we now entered an era of the older virtuoso?

on.ft.com/4b4SSeE

Georgia's central bank has effectively shielded a former prosecutor sanctioned by the US for doing Russia's bidding in Georgia. The sanctions are the firmest evidence yet that corroborates rumours of FSB infiltration in Georgian politics. My story –
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Another sad and beautiful story on Georgia from Nadia Beard

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Georgia's cultural world has been a reliable canary for the oxygen left in the country's democracy.

I wrote about Tbilisi's beautiful Writers' House, and what the political appointment of its new director says about the country's authoritarian trajectory
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My review of Tom Parfitt's High Caucasus in Financial Times. An unassuming, very human memoir as much about the North Caucasus and Russian imperialism as a meditation on memory and how overcoming trauma is only possible with the freedom to remember
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Recent footage of an emaciated Saakashvili has made an already bad relationship between Georgia and Ukraine worse. Zelenskyy demands that Saakashvili – a Ukrainian citizen – be transferred to Ukraine for treatment. The Georgian gov says no.

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A great highlight of a great three days at @TbilisiZeg. Sharing the stage and talking music and Tbilisi with Giorgi Gigashvili

— “the many ellipses of a life that remained homesick in the shadow of its youth” —

⁦Rachmaninoff left Russia at 44 and was never able to return. Read ⁦Nadia Beard⁩ review of a new biography on.ft.com/3N3UN91

For Financial Times I reviewed Fiona Maddocks' new book about Rachmaninoff, a composer whose exile, more than music, has something to say about life and reinvention
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So pleased that amazing Gigashvili is joining us for @TbilisiZeg. And no one can lead this conversation better than Nadia Beard. Get your ticket at tbilisistorytelling.com

Delighted, honoured, excited to be speaking at the wonderful @TbilisiZeg 8-10 June, and I'll be in good company with Armando Iannucci Christopher Wylie 🏳️‍🌈 natalia antelava Polina Ivanova etc. Come for the talks, stay to hear piano genius Giorgi Gigashvili perform

Tickets – tbilisistorytelling.com/tickets

The Georgian government’s positive reaction to Russia resuming commercial flights between the nations has reignited fears about the Caucasus country drifting back into Moscow’s orbit.
ft.com/content/e4a5e1… Nadia Beard

Timely & important dispatch on the dissent in Tbilisi v the Georgia Dream government, incl moving hospital iv with Mikheil Saakashvili - Nadia Beard in FT Weekend Magazine as powerful on politics as the piano ft.com/content/37d222…

On protests, the foreign agent law and where the war in Ukraine has left Georgia. My dispatch from Tbilisi in the FT Weekend Magazine this weekend --
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JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME

Our dear friend Evan Gershkovich will spend the next months in a Moscow prison. We’d love for him to know how much he is supported. If you would like to write to him, please use:
[email protected]

My friend and thoroughly professional journalist Evan Gershkovich has been arrested by the FSB on obviously bogus espionage charges. Journalism is not a crime. Evan should be released immediately
themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/30/rus…

The US warns of a 'dark day for Georgia's democracy' as an apparently Putin-inspired media law threatens to derail the country's EU and Nato aspirations. with Henry Foy

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