Georgian Tax Service employee dismissed from office after participating in protests

Nato Bolkvadze, a Tax Service Department analyst, was dismissed from her job after participating in protests against the suspension of the Georgia’s European integration. Nato Bolkvadze treats her dismissal as violation of her rights and intends to appeal against it.

On June 1, Nato Bolkvadze, the chief analyst of the Customs Risk Management Department of the Georgian Tax Service, was dismissed from her job due to her participation in the pro-European demonstrations, and she was also fined for these actions.

The dismissal order, a scanned copy of which Nato Bolkvadze posted on her page in Facebook*, states that she was dismissed “because of gross violation of her duties imposed by the internal regulations.”

This is unconstitutional, and I will definitely appeal the order of my dismissal

The organization’s internal regulations provided for the ban for employees on participation in demonstrations, and starting from May 2, the regulations were further tightened, the activist notes. “However, this is unconstitutional, and I will definitely appeal against both the changes made to the internal regulations and the order of my dismissal,” Nato Bolkvadze told the “Batumelebi” publication.

Nato Bolkvadze claims that her dismissal is not an isolated case of pressure on the organization’s employees. “I am the only one who has been officially dismissed on such grounds, but several other employees were verbally asked to write letters to leave on their own will, which was preceded by the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against those employees, as well as against me. Some employees wrote letters to leave on their own will and resigned due to the created repressive and discriminatory environment,” Nato Bolkvadze claims.

At present, the “Caucasian Knot” does not yet have any comments from officials of the Customs Risk Management Department of the Tax Service of Georgia regarding the reasons for the dismissal of Nato Bolkvadze and the information about the dismissals of other organization’s employees made public by the activist.

This was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 2, 2025 at 07:53 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here. 

*On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.