As they say in Kazakhstan: If you can't beat 'em, feign bemusement and a thinly veiled sense of humor by halfheartedly endorsing a fictional figure you've thus far railed very publicly against, and join 'em.

That, and "throw the Jew down the well."

Kazakhstan Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat Aliyev, in an interview with Kazakhstan Today—and no, this isn't the setup to a punchline—invited British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, the alter ego of the hilariously offensive ersatz TV journalist Borat, to visit the country he has made a career of maligning.

The move marks an about-face for the Central Asian government, which previously threatened Cohen with defamation lawsuits and more recently launched an offensive of pro-Kazakhstan ads in media outlets to combat the negative image of their country as propagated by Borat.

"We must have a sense of humor and respect other people's freedom of creativity," Aliyez said. "It's useless to offend an artist and threaten to sue him. It will only further damage the country's reputation and make Borat even more popular.

"I'd like to invite Cohen here. He can discover a lot of things. Women drive cars, wine is made of grapes and Jews are free to go to synagogue."

Hardly groundbreaking traditions to spout off on, though extremely progressive when weighed against the Kazakhstan Borat waxes nostalgic about.

The homophobic, misogynistic and, most importantly, fictional reporter has long claimed that transportation in his homeland consists of wooden carts pulled by peasant women, that local wine is made from fermented horse's urine and that the country's most popular folk song is a catchy little ditty entitled "Throw the Jew Down the Well."

And then there are his casual mentions of incest and dog-shooting as acceptable Kazakh pastimes and his frequent claim that the most traditional hobbies are "table tennis and rape."

It's easy to see why the government has become increasingly vocal about disputing Borat's version of the country, particularly in the run-up to Cohen's much buzzed about movie, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, due out Nov. 3.

Though if the Kazakhs really want Cohen to stop mocking their country, they might want to stop providing him with material. Earlier this week, the Kazakhstan Central Bank announced it would go ahead and circulate several thousand bank notes this fall despite having misspelled the word "bank" on the currency.

While Aliyev is attempting to ease the relationship between his country and Cohen's brash alter ego, not all Kazakhs are in such a forgiving mood. The country's largest chain of movie theaters, Otau, announced last month that it would not run the movie, and government authorities last year shut down Borat's official Kazakh-based Website.

Though it seems the U.S. government is equally as uneager to embrace Borat as the Kazakh one.

Last month, Secret Service agents turned away Borat at the gates of the White House after an in-character Cohen attempted to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his film, along with "American dignitaries" O.J. Simpson and "Mel Gibsons."

The White House visit came right after the Kazakh government ran a series of ads, among them spots on CNN and a four-page spread in the New York Times, seeking to rebuff Borat's take on the country.

Alluding to, though never mentioning, the fictional journalist, the ads included headlines claiming "religious tolerance is another one of the hallmarks of the nation," and professing that the country is "bolstering ties with the United States."

Never one to let an opportunity for press coverage slip by, Borat addressed the ads, claiming they were "disgusting fabrications" orchestrated by the neighboring—and clearly jealous—nation of Uzbekistan.

"If there is one more item of Uzbek propaganda claiming that we do not drink fermented horse's urine, give death penalty for baking bagels, or export over 300 tons of human pubis per year, then we will be left with no alternative but to commence bombardment of their cities with our catapults."

Kazakh press secretary Roman Vasilenko again responded to the sound bite, saying Borat "is not a Kazakh. What he represents is a country of Boratastan, a country of one."