Sova
https://sova.news
Sova is a Russian-language publication that aims to serve as an independent voice from Georgia. It is one of the first Russian-language media outlets providing balanced coverage of Georgia's developments, representing an alternative to Russian state-sponsored sources.
Sova mainly targets Georgia's ethnic minorities and other Russian-speaking populations in the Caucasus, including the occupied territories of Abkhazia and Samachablo. However, in 2021, its audience increased and included readers from Ukraine and Russia, actively seeking news from independent and external sources in Russian.
Sova was founded in Tbilisi in 2016 by a group of journalists previously working for PIK, a Russian-language Georgian TV channel. After Crimea's annexation by Russia in 2014, it became clear that Russia's interests in the Caucasus had deepened, and the Kremlin propaganda would strengthen, especially targeting the Russian-speaking population. Sova aimed to be an alternative information source to that propaganda.
Sova reports on politics, economics, and other integral aspects of modern life. The media outlet publishes articles, photo and video stories, blogs and YouTube shows.
In 2021, Sova actively started to report on Ukraine, as the journalists could find many similarities between the ongoing events and the situation in Georgia before Russia's invasion in 2008. Sova also published a project called Analogues, which documented these similarities and provided the Georgian perspective and experience; it compared Russian officials' statements before the invasion of Georgia in 2008 with those made before the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Last updated: February 2023