Borat Must Be Making Happy: Kazakh Leader's Visit to U.S. on Front Page of 'Wash Post'

By: E&P Staff It was on the front page of The Washington Post, and bylined by a well-known and respected name, Peter Baker, but one still had to wonder: Did Borat have anything to do with this?

The Baker story today profiles an upcoming visit to this country by the president of Kazakhstan, an accused thief and "autocrat" who, nevertheless, will soon be receiving a warm welcome both at the White House and the Bush compound at Kennebunkport. With this fresh publicity, he may now be the second most famous Kazakh in America, though still trailing far behind Borat Sagdiyev, the comic creation of Sacha Baron Cohen of "Ali G" fame.

The long-awaited "Borat" movie -- with the title character in the role of foreign journalist traveling the U.S. -- is coming out this fall, so normally one might suspect that the Kazakh leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has timed his visit to help boost the movie debut of a favorite son. However, the Kazakh government has blasted Cohen in the past, and threatened legal action, for allowing Borat to, among other things, make fun of his homeland, demean women, slander gypsies and (in a famous song) urge listeners to "Throw the Jew Down the Well."

Borat at first claimed to ?fully support my government?s decision to sue this Jew.? But on his Web site, he declared in a headline: "I Innocent of Accusings of the Kazakhstan Government!" Last April, President Nazarbayev's own daughter stood up for Borat, saying that his jibes hurt the country much less than official attempts to muzzle him.

And given her father's background, he is in no position to throw stones at poor Borat. Baker in the Post today notes that he "runs a nation that is anything but free and who has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of pocketing the bulk of $78 million in bribes from an American businessman. ... Nazarbayev has banned opposition parties, intimidated the press and profited from his post, according to the U.S. government. But he also sits atop massive oil reserves that have helped open doors in Washington." Nazarbayev, 66, has led Kazakhstan since 1990.

New York magazine recently reported that the Kazakh embassy in the U.S. remains divided over whether to knock or boost the "Borat" movie. Perhaps trying to make amends, Borat has offered the following testimonial: "Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world. Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."

Sean R. Roberts, Central Asian Affairs Fellow at Georgetown University, recently commented on the Borat/Nazarbayev connection on his blog, The Roberts Report. Here are some highlights:

"Having just moved back to the U.S., I have found that more Americans are aware of Kazakhstan than four years ago when I last lived in the United States. The increased knowledge of Kazakhstan, however, is not due to the country?s economic successes or its role as a U.S. ally in the war on terror.' Instead, most Americans who have heard of Kazakhstan have heard of it through a satire of a Kazakh journalist named Borat. ...

"Borat certainly does not promote an image of Kazakhstan that is in sync with that which the government and its leader would like to promote abroad. As the old adage goes, however, 'there is no such thing as bad publicity.' If that is true, Borat is bringing much more publicity to Kazakhstan than the hired guns of Patton Boggs have accomplished.

"As a recent piece in New York magazine points out, there may even be a split in the Kazakhstani elite over Borat and his role (both positively and negatively) on the image and name recognition of Kazakhstan in the United States. The short article also suggests, however, that the real test of the tenuous relationship between Borat and the Kazakhstan government will emerge in the upcoming weeks as the public relations blitz being planned by the Kazakhstan government to publicize the country in the U.S. in the run-up to President Nazarbayev?s long-awaited trip to Washington clashes with the advertising blitz ongoing to promote Borat?s new film. ..."