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You may recall a minor international brouhaha back in December, after noted Kazakh goodwill ambassador Borat found his official website was disappeared by Kazakhstan's unamused government. (The website lived on, however, at borat.tv.) Now, the daughter of the President of Kazakhstan has come out in defense of the celebrity cow-puncher:

Dariga, one of the three daughters of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said Kazakhstan's furious reaction to Cohen's alter-ego Borat character hurt the nation's image a lot more than the jokes themselves.

"This Web site (www.borat.kz) damaged our image much less than its closure which was covered by all global news agencies," Dariga said in an interview published on Friday in Kazakh newspaper Karavan.

"We should not be afraid of humor and we shouldn't try to control everything, I think," added Dariga, an influential politician who once headed the country's main TV channel Khabar.

Borat's own 11-year-old son Biram (father to his two grandchildren) offered his own filial reconciliatory sentiment, thanking Dariga for her words of support and offering to hire her for an hour of sexy intercourse at market price.