Eristavi is one of the most prominent English-speaking voices from Eastern Europe.
I got my first broadcast job at 16. I schemed my way into a meeting with the head of a local radio in southern Ukraine. First, she showed me to the door. Then had a second look & asked me to read the news from a paper. “You’re lucky my anchor fell ill, and your voice sounds like you’re 40. You’re on air in 15 minutes. Go!” The rest was my lifelong obsession with storytelling and turning messy issues into stories people actually get — and act on.
Eristavi has a two-decade-long journalism career behind him, which includes championing mainstream English-language coverage of Eastern Europe by indigenous voices.
Two decades in journalism taught him how to single out clarity amid the noise. The last decade in democracy support taught him how to turn that clarity into strategy: co-founding cross-border media networks, leading innovative disinfo-resilience programmes reaching 300M+, and designing products that people trust. Eristavi’s body of work is a masterclass on narrative disruption. (Well, at least ChatGPT insists on it.)
He went from covering both Ukrainian pro-democratic revolutions, being the country’s youngest news anchor and newsroom manager to founding international operations at the leading news startup covering Eastern Europe, and becoming a contributor to leading global outlets, such as RFERL, BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Politico, Monocle and the Washington Post. At the same time, Bild and The New York Times called his social media reporting an essential source on the region.
That’s a pretty elite roster, putting him among the most internationally recognised Eastern European voices.
He led pioneering English-language coverage of the Russian disinformation warfare, Russian colonialism, and the fight for human rights equality in Eastern Europe.
His storytelling seamlessly blends personal experience, journalism, and empathetic communications, resonating with global audiences.
He’s also a rare openly queer voice in Eastern European media, which adds a powerful layer of representation and insight.
His journalism work made Eristavi a featured speaker at leading universities, many parliaments, and foreign ministries, including hearings at the US Congress and the European Parliament. I was featured by NowThis, the Emmy-winning TV show Gaycation by VICE, Voice of America, BILD , among others.
Eristavi’s career spans frontline reporting, civil society leadership, and building cross-border networks in 21 countries to push back against tyranny — and lately, being a bestselling author. He advised lawmakers across the free world, coordinated rapid-response teams, and unleashed disruption into global conversations about Russia.
Behind all of it is Eristavi’s obsession with repairing public trust in facts, fighting cognitive warfare with innovation, and the genuine cringe of knowing that imperialism still exists in the 21st century.