Georgian Authorities Raid Concentrix Offices Ahead of Elections

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgian authorities conducted a raid on the local offices of U.S. technology services company Concentrix and searched the homes of two employees of the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, according to reports from Georgian media.

The searches occurred just two days before a crucial parliamentary election, viewed as a pivotal moment for Georgia to decide whether to align more closely with Moscow or to uphold its traditional pro-Western stance.

Georgia’s four main opposition parties are working to prevent the ruling Georgian Dream party from maintaining its constitutional majority. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of Georgian Dream, has threatened to ban opposition parties if they win on Saturday.

According to the Interpress news agency, investigators from the Finance Ministry entered Concentrix’s office complex in Tbilisi on Thursday to conduct their searches. Concentrix, based in California, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Additionally, Georgian investigators searched the homes and offices of two non-profit researchers focused on Russian disinformation in the region, namely Sopo Gelava and Eto Buziashvili from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Gelava’s husband, Giorgi Noniashvili, stated that the family’s electronic devices were confiscated during the search.

Noniashvili, a member of the pro-Western Federalists opposition party, which is not participating in the elections, expressed concerns over the timing of the government’s actions, especially with the elections just days away. He stated, “In a situation where the government is putting a lot of pressure on civil society, this search raises numerous questions.”

Relations between Tbilisi and the West have soured dramatically since May, following the passage of a controversial foreign agents law by the Georgian Dream party. This law mandates that organizations receiving over 20% of their funding from abroad register as “agents of foreign influence,” a move criticized by local and international observers as authoritarian and influenced by Russia.

(Reporting and writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Angus MacSwan)