Sacha Baron Cohen has upset Kazakhstan with his character Borat Sagdiyev.

The foul-mouthed fictional TV reporter will now face a fierce Kazakh warrior on a mission of courage and romance. President Nazarbayev hopes that Nomad, a film about the struggle of Kazakh tribes to expel Mongol invaders, will improve his nation’s reputation.

Unfortunately for him, Borat is creating an entirely different impression before the President’s arrival in the United States tomorrow for a state visit. Baron Cohen’s new film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, is receiving rave reviews at early screenings. The British premiere is next month, at about the same time as Mr Nazarbayev is expected to visit London.

Borat’s racist and sexist diatribes as he travels across America in a quest to marry Pamela Anderson, the Baywatch star, have left officials in Kazakhstan fretting that the comedian is turning their country into a global laughing stock.

The anti-Semitic reporter presents his homeland as a place where fermented horse urine is the national drink, women must ride on the outside of buses and homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats.

Kazakhstan has bought airtime on US television stations during Mr Nazarbayev’s visit and on international satellite channels run by the BBC and Sky News to show advertisements that present a better image of the country.

Yerzhan Ashykbayev, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman, insisted that the advertising campaign aimed to promote the country’s fledgeling tourism industry rather than to counter Borat’s influence.

“We understand that Borat is a kind of satire, but it is just a pity that Mr Cohen chose Kazakhstan as the origin of his hero,” Mr Ashykbayev told The Times. “As far as I know, he has never been to Kazakhstan, although there have been efforts on the part of some people here to invite him so that he can see what our country is really like.”

Nomad opens and closes with words from President Nazarbayev. It boasts a budget of $40 million, and is the most expensive film made in the Central Asian republic.

The film will be distributed internationally by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the Hollywood moguls who founded Miramax before leaving the Disney-owned studio last year to form a new company.

Set in the 18th century, Nomad tells the story of Mansur, a handsome warrior born to unite the Kazakh tribes and free them from the Jungar occupiers of western Mongolia.

Mr Nazarbayev, whose regime has been criticised for human rights abuses, has ruled Kazakhstan since 1989 and won re-election with 91 per cent of the vote last year.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said that the election had been marred by serious irregularities.

Mr Ashykbayev said that there were no plans to ban Borat from Kazakhstan. But he added: “I hope the companies responsible for screening this movie will show some responsibility and not show it.

“It is quite insulting to the people of Kazakhstan and it may create some accusations from the public against the Government for letting such things come to our country.”

Satire or insult?

Mogul is aimed at countering a view of the country as propounded by Borat: he arrived to host the MTV Europe music awards in Lisbon in an ‘Air Kazakh’ aircraft flown by a one-eyed pilot clutching a vodka bottle

Borat said: “Please, captain of industry; I invite you to come to Kazakhstan where we have incredible natural resources, hardworking labour, and some of the cleanest prostitutes in whole of central Asia”