British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen pretty much single-handedly ruined Kazakhstan’s international image with his movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. In an early sequence the title character takes the viewer around his home village of Kuzcek and in short order smooches his sister (“Number 4 prostitute in whole of Kazakhstan!”), introduces his “retard” brother Bilo, who lives in a cage, drinks horse urine, and cheerfully points out the “town rapist,” Urkin. After departing the village in a car drawn by a horse, Borat travels to the United States, where, among other things, he serenades drinkers in an Arizona bar with a song titled “In My Country, We Have Problem (Throw the Jew Down the Well!)” He also displays truly atrocious taste in swimwear.
Now, the government of Kazakhstan has signed on with Washington lobbying outfit Policy Impact Communications to, among other things, counter the “unsophisticated” image created by the Borat movie, the firm’s CEO told The Hill. (The dozen lobbyists on the Kazakhstan account will also try to get the country into the World Trade Organization, cozy up to think tanks, reach out to bloggers and place positive op-eds in “prestige media.”)
Maybe Austria should be beefing up its DC presence too?
