To Son Pascal, I say that if you really believe that Kazakhs should stop using Russian language in favor of Kazakh, if you really feel that you, a foreigner, can tell Kazakhs how to feel pride in their background, you’re playing with fire. And it’s not your fire to play with.

Matthew Kupfer on Registan.net argues that the Italian singer who has made his name in Kazakhstan by encouraging Kazakhs to speak their mother tongue “is wading into a debate that really is none of his business”.