MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan wants a probe of how a parody of its national anthem instead of the genuine song was played at an international sports competition.
Kazakhstan’s Maria Dmitrienko won a gold medal Thursday at the Arab Shooting Championships in Kuwait. But during the medal ceremony the public address system played the spoof anthem from the comedy movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” a film that offended many Kazakhs by portraying the country as backward and racist.
“It is, of course, a scandal and demands a thorough investigation, which we intend to conduct,” foreign ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Shooting team member Oksana Stavitskaya said Asian Shooting Federation president Sheikh Salman al-Sabah apologized to the team, ITAR-Tass reported.
