Apology to Kazakh shooting team

Kazakhstan has demanded an apology after the fake national anthem from the Borat film was played at a medal ceremony for its shooting team.

Kuwati officials had to rerun the event after gold medalist Maria Dmitrienko had to stoically listen to Sacha Baron Cohen's spoof as she stood on the podium.

The lyrics contains lines such as 'Kazakhstan’s prostitutes cleanest in the region. Except of course Turkmenistan’s.'

Coach Anvar Yunusmetov told Kazakh news agency Tengrinews that organisers of the Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdallah Al-Jaber tournament had also got the Serbian national anthem wrong.

'Then Maria Dmitrienko's turn came,' he said. 'She got up on to the pedestal and they played a completely different anthem, offensive to Kazakhstan.'

Organisers – who are believed to have erroneously downloaded the track from the internet – did apologise, and raised three Kazakh flags the next day to the strains of the real anthem.

The Borat film caused outrage in Kazakhstan and was eventually banned there. The government also threatened Baron Cohen with legal action

Here is the Borat spoof:

Published: 23 Mar 2012