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Is Borat right about Kazakhstan? Now they have mis-spelt their banknotes
Last updated at 22:37pm on 18.10.06
Borat has upset many Kazakhs with his depiction of them as a backward
Kazakhstan, the country lampooned by the comedy character Borat, has given him more ammunition for his mockery of the former Soviet republic.
The Kazakhstan central bank has misspelled the word "bank" on its new notes.
The bank plans to put the misprinted notes - worth 2,000 tenge (£8) and 5,000-tenge (£20) - into circulation in November and then gradually withdraw them to correct the spelling.
The move has drawn the ire of the Central Asian state's politicians who urged the bank to abandon the notes altogether.
"The mistake is not just a spelling problem - it has political undertones," a letter from members of parliament to President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
"We urge you to tell the National Bank not to put out the notes with a mistake in the Kazakh language."
Language is a contentious issue in Kazakhstan. Kazakhs were encouraged to speak Russian, during Soviet times but since independence in 1991, the country has seen the Kazakh language as a national symbol.
Borat the reporter was the creation of British comedian Sacha Baron-Cohen for his TV show, which has now been expanded into a full-length film.
But he has upset many Kazakhs with his depiction of them as a backward, fascist race whose hobbies are "table tennis and rape".
