VANCOUVER -- A racy photograph of the Georgian economy minister, said to be taken at a Vancouver strip club, is creating international media furore.

Vera Kobalia, 28, who lived in Vancouver and was educated at BCIT, is pictured posing salaciously with a group of scantily clad women.

The Russian media has sprung forward, criticizing President Mikheil Saakashvili for appointing "strippers" to his cabinet.

The U.K.'s Independent newspaper is reporting that Saakashvili appointed the brunette beauty to the ministerial post after meeting her during his trip to Vancouver in February during the Winter Olympics.

Kobalia, who is Georgian, was raised in Canada. According to her official biography on a Georgian government site, she graduated from King George high school in 1999 and BCIT in 2004.

The website also says Kobalia worked as a television producer in Vancouver for Global TV and CBC.

However, no one at the Global TV newsroom could recall the name, and Petra Mehner at Global’s Human Resources department said there is no record of Kobalia ever having been on the payroll.

BCIT would not confirm or deny whether she graduated from a program, saying it’s policy to protect students’ privacy rights.

The risque photo of Kobalia, attached to this story, was taken from a Facebook page under Kobalia's name. But the minister denies Russian media claims that it was taken at a Vancouver strip club.

According to the Independent, Kobalia insists the snap was taken almost 10 years ago when she was on holiday in Florida.

She is quoted as saying: "If the worst thing that the opposition or anyone else can find about me is my old picture from college than I don't see anything wrong with that."