Real: Kazakhstan is exceptionally rich in natural resources. The Tengiz oilfield, near the city of Atyrau, is the sixth largest in the world, and the country also has large reserves of gas, metals and minerals.

Borat: Kazakhstan’s top three exports are potassium, apples, and young boys to Michael Jackson’s ranch.

Real: Kazakhs worldwide use three different scripts to write their language: those living in Kazakhstan largely use Cyrillic; those in Turkey use Latin; and those in China use Arabic.

Borat: “Chenquieh” means thank you in Kazakh, “Barbara Bush” means “to eat the hair from the testes satchel.”

Real: President Nursultan Nazarbayev was granted lifetime powers in 2000. His sister-in-law is head of a major newspaper printing press, and his daughter Dariga runs a political party and is rumored to be his preferred successor.

Borat: Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and the age of consent has been raised to eight years old.

Real: Traditional Kazakh sports include wrestling and horsemanship.

Borat: The annual Kazakh festival of “Shurik” features two million shepherds gathering in a field, where they get drunk on fermented horse urine and then dig a hole to fill with dogs and Uzbeks. Then they throw potatoes on them for two days.

Real: Kazakhstan recently issued new banknotes on which the word “bank” was misspelled.

Borat: Kazakhs do not like Uzbeks because “they are nosey people with a bone in the middle of their brain.”