After Kenya blocked the uprooting and transportation of eight baobab trees to former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's Shekvetili Dendrological Park, the Guardian's East Africa global development correspondent Caroline Kimeu talks about the significance of the trees and how Ivanishvili's contractor secured the license to uproot them.

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• Kenya blocks export of baobab trees to Georgia citing 'irregularities'

Yerevan-based political analyst talks about the significance and the outcomes of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation's meeting in Yerevan.

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• CSTO summit welcomed with protests in Yerevan

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In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Samir Sultanov, the general secretary of the Azerbaijani Democracy 1918 movement, talks about the arrest of several members of his group and labour movements in Azerbaijan.

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• Azerbaijani pro-democracy activist arrested
• Chair of Azerbaijani democracy group given prison sentence following anti-government posts
• Voices of dissent: Azerbaijan reacts to war

Mariam Nikuradze revisits the village of Itkhvisi in Chiatura seven months after the settlement began to collapse due to mining operations in a nearby area.

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• A Georgian village falls through the cracks
• In pictures | Lips sewn shut in Chiatura's sinking village

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In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Tor, a fighter from the Chechen Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion fighting in Ukraine, phones in to talk about the significance of Ukraine's recognition of Ichkeria as an independent state temporarily occupied by Russia.

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• Ukrainian Parliament recognises independence of Chechnya

Yerevan-based political analyst talks about Nagorno-Karabakh's internal politics and the appointment of Russian–Armenian billionaire Ruben Vardanyan as State Minister of the region.

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• Billionaire Ruben Vardanyan to serve as Nagorno-Karabakh's State Minister

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In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Svetlana Anokhina, a women's right activist from Daghestan, about the recent escape of four young Daghestani women from a life of domestic abuse in their home republic.

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• Four Daghestani women flee to Georgia citing domestic abuse

Ani Avetisyan talks about the tripartite meeting between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in Sochi, and the mass demonstration that took place in Stepanakert over the weekend.

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• Thousands rally in Nagorno-Karabakh over fears for region's future

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In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Pink Armenia's communications director, Mamikon Hovsepyan, about the suicide of a young queer couple in Armenia.

Mariam Nikuradze talks about the high-profile domestic abuse case that saw star Georgian tennis player Nikoloz Basilashvili acquitted of charges of violence against his wife and the precedent it might set for similar cases in the future.

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• Georgian tennis star Nikoloz Basilashvili cleared of abusing ex-wife

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In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Robin Fabbro talks to Yerevan-based political analyst Tigran Grigoryan about Armenia's relations with the CSTO after the two-day war with Azerbaijan in September.

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• Opinion | Russia's shifting interests are leaving Armenia out to dry
• Opinion | Armenia's old allies have failed it, new ones have yet to appear

Tata Shoshiashvili talks about an accident that took the life of a 13-year-old girl and injured two other children following the reopening of Tbilisi's Vake Park, and the backlash against Mayor Kakha Kaladze for his handling of the incident.

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• Embattled Tbilisi mayor lashes out at critics after death of 13-year-old
• Calls for Tbilisi mayor to resign after 13-year-old dies in newly re-opened park

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In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Robin Fabbro talks to Bulat Khalilov and Timur Kodzoko, independent researchers from Nalchik and the founders of Ored Recordings, about the discrimination North Caucasians have experienced attempting to cross the Georgian border.

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• 'A humiliating experience': 4 days in limbo on the Georgian–Russian border
• Violence and arrests as anti-war protests hit Russia's North Caucasus

Salome Khvedelidze talks about femicide in Georgia, and what the country should be doing to curb violence against women.

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• Consent not required: how Georgian legislation allows rapists to walk free
• Tbilisi clinic defends nurse over 'joke' advocating date rape

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In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Robin Fabbro talks to Ani Avetisyan and Ismi Aghayev about the latest accusations of war crimes levelled against Azerbaijan.

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• Western countries express horror at Azerbaijan POW execution video
• Azerbaijan 'investigating' new POW execution footage
• Footage appears to show desecration of female Armenian soldier

OC Media co-director Mariam Nikuradze discusses the Georgian State Security Service's involvement in the abduction of Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli in 2017, as well as other controversies surrounding the agency.

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• Mukhtarli identifies top Georgian security official as one of his kidnappers
• Kidnap, smuggling, and rigged elections: 5 allegations by Georgia's former security chief

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In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Luiza Mchedlishvili about the anti-war protests that have taken place in the North Caucasus throughout the past week, and Tata Shoshiashvili talks about the arrival of thousands of Russians after the partial-mobilisation announcement.

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• Violence and arrests as anti-war protests hit Russia's North Caucasus
• Anti-war protest held in Grozny
• Kadyrov holds pro-war rally in Grozny

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In this week's episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Dominik Cagara about the international media's coverage of the 13-14 September war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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• Explainer | What happened in Armenia and Azerbaijan on 13–14 September?

Salome Kobalava joins OC Media to discuss the sale of up to 1,000 square kilometres of forests in Racha to a private company and the implications it might have on local residents.

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• Opinion | Local voices were ignored in the auctioning of Racha's forests
• Georgian Government auctions off massive swath of land for hunting

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