Michael Mcfeat wrote next to a photo on his Facebook account of workers lining up at a canteen at the Kumtor gold mine on New Year’s Eve: “The Kyrgyz people queuing out the door for there special delicacy the horses penis!!” (sic).

He was poking fun at the chu- chuk, a sausage made up of horse meat and fat which is boiled and served sliced up before festive meals. Local staff, though, at the gold mine, run by Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, were outraged and called a strike.

Mr Mcfeat, 39, tried to leave the country but was detained at Bishkek airport. Media suggested that he could have been prosecuted for racial hatred but instead he was deported for visa infringements.

Mr Mcfeat did not work directly for Centerra Gold but instead for a sub- contractor.

Still, it has aggravated relations between Centerra Gold and Kyrgyzstan. The two sides are locked in a dispute over ownership.

Adil Turdukulov, a Bishkek-based analyst, said relations between foreign and local staff at Kyrgyzstan’s various mining projects are strained over unequal pay and conditions.

“Tense relations between local and foreign employees of Kumtor have been growing, and this is just an effect,” he said.

Kyrgyzstan has been independent since 1991 and, like other Central Asian states, is sensitive about its identity.

And on the streets of Bishkek, most people thought that Mr Mcfeat had gotten off lightly.

Roza, 62, said that he should think before poking fun at Kyrgyzstan as some of Scotland’s own delicacies sounded foul.

“The Scots also eat sheep’s stomach stuffed with heart, oatmeal, guts and fat,” she said referring to haggis, a Scottish national dish.