A group of Czech tourists have been arrested in Kazakhstan for donning Borat-style mankinis in the middle of the capital city.

The visitors were photographed standing in the centre of Astana in the skimpy swimsuits as snow was falling last week.

The six tourists were charged with "minor hooliganism" and fined 22,500 Tenge (about $80) each.

The arrests divided the country, with journalist Assem Mirjekeeva prompting a robust discussion on Facebook.

The Czech tourists in the mankinis. (Informburo.kz)

"If our citizens did this in the Czech Republic, how would their authorities react?" she wrote.

"I think they would not have reacted in any way. It's just our police that are so sensitive," Vitaliy Shuptar replied.

"Borat is not Kazakhstan. Borat is banter," Olesya Brain wrote.

Borat is a controversial figure in Kazakhstan, with the character played by English comic Sacha Baron Cohen depicting the Central Asian nation as backwards, institutionally anti-Semitic and destitute.