ANALYSIS: Georgia’s Disputed Parliamentary Speaker Calls UK MP ‘Corrupt’ Over Iran Influence Concerns”

Tamara Ceaikovski

Shalva Papuashvili, the Speaker of Georgia’s contentious parliament, has triggered a fresh diplomatic spat with London, baselessly accusing a British Member of Parliament of being “corrupt” after the lawmaker warned that Georgia is becoming a “back door” for the Iranian regime. The verbal assault follows a Feb. 3 session in the UK House of Commons, where Conservative MP Mark Pritchard raised the alarm over a massive influx of Iranian shell companies in Georgia – a development that threatens to