Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

Kazakhstan Press Secretary, Roman Vasilenko, is denying claims by famous globe-trotting TV reporter Borat that he is an "Uzbek imposter". Vasilenko told reporters, "Borat is not a Kazakh. What he represents is a country of Boratastan, a country of one".

Borat Sagdiyev (British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen) is perhaps not the best advertisement for Kazakhstan. He informs reporters that his country is changing with the times... "Women can now travel on the inside of buses, and homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats".

Borat is now preparing to release his first "movie-film", a mocumentary with the catchy title of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan...


Kazakhstan President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is currently visiting Washington for talks with George W Bush. His country's trying to counter Borat's satire by launching a publicity campaign in magazines and on TV, to try and present the central Asian nation in a better light.

The Kazakh government's also funding their own movie - a $53m tribal epic called Nomad - the most expensive film the country's ever made.

Borat gave a media statement in front of the Kazakh embassy in Washington this week to bemused American journalists, where he insisted the President had travelled to the US to help promote his film.

Borat was later turned away from the gates of the White House, after trying to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his movie (along with "Mel Gibsons," O.J. Simpson and other "American dignitaries").

Kazakhstan's largest cinema chain has no plans to screen Borat's new movie, calling it "offensive, a complete lie and nonsense". However, Otau Cinema's distribution manager is probably bang on the money when he notes, "It's a shame that some Americans will probably believe what they see there." ;)

* Stuff: Kazakhstan's Borat damage control
* Zap2it: Mr. Borat Goes to Washington
* Official Borat Homesite