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Russia's attempts to force Georgia back into the Kremlin orbit via political control offer a hint of Moscow's vision for a future settlement with a defeated Ukraine, writes Nicholas Chkhaidze.

Putin has weaponized history to justify the genocidal invasion of Ukraine. Unless he is defeated, the Russian dictator will use the same bogus historical arguments to launch new imperial adventures, writes Nicholas Chkhaidze.

The paper presents a biography of one of the leading political figures of the Byzantine Empire in the 60s – 80s of the 11th century – Ioannes Doukas, Caesar, the monk Ignatios. Discussed in detail sigillographical the monuments associated with Ioannes – Ignatios. Recent discoveries of two seals of this functionary in Petra (near Batumi) and Matarkha (modern Taman) are linked to certain political events, taking place in these regions in the second half. 70s – early 80s of the 11th century. ; В работе представлена биография одного из ведущих политических деятелей Византии 60–80-х гг. XI в. – Иоанна Дуки, кесаря, в монашестве Игнатия. Подробно рассмотрены сигиллографические памятники, связываемые с Иоанном – Игнатием. Недавние находки двух его печатей в Петре (близ Батуми) и Матархе (совр. Тамань) увязываются с определенными политическими событиями, происходившими в этих регионах во второй половине 70 – начале 80-х гг. XI века.

This article conceptualises Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel's experimental documentary Leviathan (2012) using Niklas Luhmann's observation theory and Cary Wolfe's writing on posthumanism which, significantly influenced by Luhmann's attack on anthropocentrism in social theory, questions the importance of human agency for social and psychic systems. Leviathan, I argue, engenders perspectives drawn from visual culture that enable a rethinking of hierarchical humanist ethics based on species membership, contributing to posthumanist critical discourse.Leviathan offers a radically non-anthropocentric take on the topic of industrial fishing, presented via innovative use of camera placements and cinematic points of view. Unpredictable camera movements involving contingent framing and angles generate an open-ended work not tied to the human gaze. Shooting from a caught marine animal's point of view forces the viewer to assume an unexpected perspective. To analyse this particular perspective, I turn to Luhmann's theories about an observation not tied to human subjectivity, where the subject of observation is simultaneously an object, and where the external world is equally inaccessible to humans and nonhumans alike. In this schema, present in any observation is a constitutive blindness that can only be seen by another observer, but it is this very blindness which makes the observation possible.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union independent country of Georgia was faced ultimate challenges both in internal as well as foreign political spheres. Leader of the national movement and the first president of the Republic Zviad Gamsakhurdia was found victim of international isolation. Pro-European course of Georgia is connected to the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze, former foreign minister of the Soviet Union, whose political project was to push Georgia to full membership of Euro Atlantic organizations. These tendencies became even stronger since 2003, after the "Rose Revolution", under the government of the third president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili. In parallel with achievements on the way of Euro Integration anti-Western feelings were gradually emerged and strengthened in the Georgian public discourse. The successes in the pro-European politics and attempts to ratify the European legislative and constitutional norms were accompanied with protests supported by some public and political figures. The paper aims at analysing controversial nature of the process of Georgia's European Integration with its under streams and flows what have been making the process complicated.

The paper deals with the multifaceted representation of Georgian public figure Ilia Chavchavadze (1837–1907). Paradoxically, he is treated as a great and gifted son of Georgia by various and sometimes drastically different segments of modern Georgian society. In the framework of memory studies, Ilia is a stunning example of how certain historical figures are manipulated by different regimes to legitimize their power and/or to stake their political claims. For the Soviet regime, he was a fighter for equality and revolutionary changes. By researching different attitudes towards Ilia from the historical perspective and using theories of cultural memory, numerous questions related to controversial interpretations of Ilia Chavchavadze's activities will be answered. The aim of the given research is to analyze the narrative dynamics surrounding Ilia Chavchavadze's personality and to analyze the struggle between narratives which ended in the complete triumph of the official policy of memory within a strict ideological framework. We focus on the nature and reasons for the dramatic transformations of Ilia Chavchavadze's image in different political and social contexts.

Introduction. The paper considers the two Byzantine lead seals of the second half of the 11th century, the owner of which was a translator (ermeneutes) with a non-Christian name Turkeles.

Analysis. The correct reading of the owner's name was possible by comparing the sigillographic texts with the inscription on a silver bucket found in Perm region (Russia). This richly ornamented vessel made in the last third of the 11th – 12th c., belonged, according to the inscription, to a Christian person called Theodore Turkeles. The most probable etymology of this very rare name is Turkic. Because both seals originate from the territory of the Old Rus, we can suppose that he was involved in the northern policy of Byzantium.

Results. It can be assumed that the owner of the seal, Turkeles, became the first Rhomaios in his family, entering the service of the Emperor as a translator from Turkic languages. The owner of the bucket, Theodore was called by the second name Turkeles, either from his father or as a family name. Since no other Turkeles is attested in the Byzantine sources, the bearers of this name were not very successful in cultivating their family tree, and the patronymic could simply not have time to turn into a family nickname.

Immigration policy has been one of the top concerns of American voters over the last decade and has attracted some of the most heated rhetoric in politics and news media across the world. Much like other political language, talk about immigration is suffused with metaphor. To what extent does the language about immigration, and specifically the metaphors used, influence people's views of the issues? How powerful are these metaphors? In our studies, we exposed participants to one of four versions of a passage about an increase in immigrants in one town. The four versions of the passage included all identical facts and figures and differed in only a single word at the beginning of the passage, describing the increase in immigrant labor as either an "increase," a "boost," an "invasion," or a "flood." Although the passages differed only in this one word, participants' attitudes towards this increase and their predictions about its effects on the economy differed significantly depending on the metaphor. Of course, opinions on immigration differ across political affiliations. Remarkably, the single word metaphor was strong enough to mitigate much of the difference in opinion on immigration between Democrats and Republicans in our sample. Further analyses suggested that the results are not due simply to positive or negative lexical associations to the metaphorical words, and also that metaphors can act covertly in organizing people's beliefs.

Fatalism—belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable—have been studied by researchers from different disciplines as it is a significant notion to explain various aspects of individual and social life (health behavior, economic capital, political activity, social participation, etc.). However, the weakness of using only etic methods to understand this complex phenomenon is strongly emphasized. We fully share this viewpoint and think that it is far more appropriate to study fatalism with an interdisciplinary approach such as Contemporary Psychological Anthropology. The aim of the present study was to emphasize the theoretical and methodological opportunities of studying fatalism within this field (specifically, within cultural models school) and presenting the results of the empirical study on the Georgian cultural model of fatalism in the light of the opportunities discussed.
The theoretical apparatus of the cultural models' school allowed us to think of culturally shaped fatalism, not only as an element of objective culture beyond the mind but also as a part of the mind, namely, as a cognitive schema formed on the basis of shared experiences. To reveal components of this schema we used the in-depth interview as a data collection method and cultural analysis of discourse (specifically, metaphor analysis) as the data analysis method. Personal control, Deity, Destiny, Luck, and Helplessness emerged as the components of Georgian cultural schema according to this analysis.
Key words: Fatalism, Cultural Model, Emic Approach, Mutually Inclusive.

Introduction. One of the material evidences of the Christianization of the territory of historical Alania (the east of the Krasnodar Territory – the northern regions of Chechnya) in the period from the 10th to the beginning of the 13th centuries is the data of staurography: the finds of crosses-encolpia, pectoral crosses, crosses-quadrifolia. The study of this category of finds allows us to consider the features and chronology of the process of Christianization of the population of the largest state in the North Caucasus in the Middle Ages, to study more closely the historical and social portrait of ordinary members of the Christian community of Alania and its elite. Methods. As a result of the messianic activity of Byzantium, which led to the baptism of the Alans at the beginning of the 10th century, as well as the establishment of the Alan Diocese (914), objects of small Christian plastics – crosses of provincial Byzantine as well as ancient Russian origin – are becoming widespread on the territory of Alania. And already with the spread of Christianity in the local Alan environment there are imitative and imitation types of crosses that are not found outside the North Caucasus. To date, more than 125 different crosses are known on the territory of Alania. Analysis. To this case, we can add the finds of five more interesting specimens found in recent years in the eastern regions of the Krasnodar Krai, the south of the Stavropol Krai, the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia. The first quadrifolia cross (fig. 1, 1) is a reverse leaf with the image of an unknown Holy Warrior (St. George?), dating from the second half of the 11th – 12th centuries. Such quadrifolia crosses (including two direct analogies) are known on the territory of Alania, originally imported from the urban craft centers of the Asia Minor provinces of Byzantium or Western Georgia, or could be made according to imported prototypes by local (or visiting) craftsmen. The four following crosses indicate the links between Alania and Ancient Russia. Two crosses (fig. 1, 2–3) – with three-part endings and a rhombic middle cross, one cross has traces of manufacturing defects – the right blade is not completely cast. These crosses were brought from the territory of the Old Russian state, where they are quite widespread and date back to the 11th – 12th century abroad. They are found on the territory of Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania, where they were also imported. The fourth cross (fig. 1, 4) is equi-pointed with rectangular branches. Similar crosses are known in the territory of Ancient Russia, from where they also came to the North Caucasus, where imitative crosses were made. They date from the end of the 11th – beginning of the 12th centuries. The fifth cross (fig. 1, 5) – with a square central part. Such crosses are widely found in many regions of Kievan Rus, but in the territory of the North Caucasus they were imported. Results. The considered finds of crosses complement the body of small Christian plastic products of the 11th – 13th centuries of ancient Russian origin, represented on the territory of Alania by crosses-encolpions, cast icons and coils. The presented finds of crosses not only add to the evidence of Christianization of Alania in the 11th – 12th centuries, but also indicate close trade, religious and ethno-cultural contacts of the population of the North Caucasus with the Asia Minor provinces of Byzantium, Georgia and Ancient Russia.