A decade ago, Georgia was the poster child of post-Soviet countries on their way to democracy and freedom. US lawmakers hope a bill will help combat democratic backsliding.

Georgians who have participated in nightly protests for the past month are exhausted, and unsure what tomorrow will bring.

Dramatic show of unity is a bold challenge to the Georgian Dream’s founder, the reclusive billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who claimed victory in the parliamentary election even before all the votes were counted.

CNN — It looked like a normal tweet by Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, posted days before NATO’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. But instead of referring to the military alliance’s acronym, she congratulated the “fellas” on their “first-ever NAFO…

CNN — The bizarre tale of Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s former pal-turned-mutineer, just got a whole lot weirder. The foul-mouthed former head of the Wagner private military company – who ran a business empire that included a…

Tallinn, Estonia CNN — In 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea and began fomenting conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region, there was a short phrase that captured the fear that Moscow would try to grab still more territory, this time in Estonia:…

CNN — At first glance, it looks like a sci-fi movie. What appear to be two drones, streaking across the night sky in Moscow, head straight for the Kremlin, on target to hit the historic Senate Palace, the official residence of Vladimir Putin.…

CNN — Vladimir Putin says he plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, the neighboring ally from which he staged part of his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. When the Russian president uses the word “nuclear” the world pays attention and…

CNN — Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited his international “best friend”, China’s leader Xi Jinping, to Moscow for a three-day state visit beginning March 20. There’s sure to be plenty of glad-handing, champagne toasts, a major press…

CNN — It was New Year’s Eve, one of the most cherished holidays in Russia. The recruits in President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine – hundreds of them mobilized just months ago – were billeted in makeshift barracks, a vocational school in the…

CNN — A huge blast early Saturday has severely damaged the only bridge connecting annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland, causing parts of it to collapse. The attack, which has disrupted major transport links between mainland Russia and the annexed…

Jill Dougherty is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN. (CNN)The funeral of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday…

Jill Dougherty is adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN. (CNN)Some of the most dramatic -- and diplomatically delicate -- moments…

Jill Dougherty is adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN. (CNN)Vladimir Putin thinks no one in the West listens to him. The Russian…

(CNN)The heartbreaking video looks just like the pictures western TV viewers are getting from the war in Ukraine: a grandmother, bundled up in a thick jacket against the cold, stands weeping in front of her wooden house, now smoldering from a rocket…

Jill Dougherty is a former CNN foreign affairs correspondent and Moscow bureau chief with expertise in Russia and the former Soviet Union. She is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. (CNN)A week after Russia invaded Ukraine, the staff of…

Moscow CNN — Nineteen-year-old Tasya stood with her friends on a cold morning in the Russian city of St. Petersburg as they joined protesters’ chants against the Russian invasion of Ukraine: “Nyet Voine!” (“No to War!”). “It’s always safer to stand…

Moscow (CNN)Before the crack of dawn, just before explosions began in cities across Ukraine, Russian state television unexpectedly broadcast an address by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two self-proclaimed "people's republics" of Donetsk and…

(CNN)Foreign forces bristling with weapons are rolling toward the Ukrainian border. Reconnaissance planes streak overhead. Rumors of "false flag" operations run rampant. If you're watching state TV in Moscow, you're seeing video of troops and tanks,…

Editor’s Note: Jill Dougherty is an American journalist, a former CNN foreign affairs correspondent and Moscow bureau chief with expertise in Russia and the former Soviet Union. She is a Centennial Fellow at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at…