US Helsinki Commission condemns freezing of accounts of Atlantic Council Tbilisi employees as attack on civil society

The US Helsinki Commission has expressed concerns over the decision to freeze the bank accounts of Sopo Gelava and Eto Buziashvili, researchers with the Atlantic Council. The commission’s chairman, Joe Wilson, described the move as a “blatant attack on Georgia’s civil society” and the American organization employing them.

Wilson stressed the actions taken against Gelava and Buziashvili, which occurred “without legal justification or a court order”, signified a “troubling trend towards authoritarianism reminiscent of Russian governance”. “If this is any indication of what’s to come, it’s clear that the Georgian Dream government is rapidly devolving into Russian-style authoritarianism”, he claimed.

Gelava and Buziashvili work within a program focused on combating disinformation, particularly examining Russian information operations. Their situation intensified just days before the parliamentary elections, when their homes were searched by financial police on October 24. Following the searches, both researchers discovered on October 29 that access to their accounts at Bank of Georgia and TBC Bank had been restricted.

Neither bank has provided a reason for the limitations, but Gelava and Buziashvili suspect that the restrictions are linked to the investigation that led to the police searches.