Ukraine bans Steven Seagal as threat to national security

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Vladimir Putin presenting Steven Seagal with a Russian passport. Photograph: TASS / Barcroft Images
Steven Seagal
Ukraine bans Steven Seagal as threat to national security
Security service says it has forbidden Seagal entry into country for five years, after actor received Russian citizenship
Alec Luhn in Moscow
Friday 5 May 2017 20.07 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/may/05/ukraine-bans-steven-seagal-national-security-russian-citizenship

  "Ukraine has banned American action movie star Steven Seagal as a
   national security threat, making him the latest of several cultural
   figures to be blacklisted.
   
   The Ukrainian security service said it had forbidden Seagal entry to
   the country for five years, in a letter published by the news site
   Apostrophe. The service's press secretary later confirmed the ban to
   other media.
   
   The letter said such a decision is made when a person has "committed
   socially dangerous actions ... that contradict the interests of
   maintaining Ukraine's security". The move comes after the actor
   received citizenship in Russia, which has backed separatists in a
   simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin handed
   Seagal a Russian passport and told him he hoped their "personal
   relationship will remain and continue" during a meeting in the Kremlin
   last year.
   
   Ukraine previously banned Russia's entry to the Eurovision song contest
   that Kiev is hosting next week.
   
   
   Steven Seagal given Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin – video
   
   Seagal, the star of the 1992 hit Under Siege as well as
   straight-to-video films such as Kill Switch, Out for a Kill and Driven
   to Kill, has had a long love affair with the former Soviet Union. He
   has eaten carrots with "Europe's last dictator" Alexander Lukashenko in
   Belarus, ridden a horse in a suit of armour at the Nomad Games in
   Kyrgyzstan and taken part in a traditional dance while visiting
   Chechnya strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.
   
   But Seagal's outspoken support for Putin and his policies have earned
   the enmity of the Ukrainian authorities. The actor called Russia's 2014
   annexation of Crimea from Ukraine "very reasonable". He later played
   with his blues band at a concert in Crimea put on by a pro-Putin biker
   club, with the flag of eastern Ukraine separatists flying onstage.
   
   In 2015, Seagal was included in a proposed blacklist of foreign
   cultural figures who "speak out in support of violating the territorial
   integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine" along with French actor Gérard
   Depardieu and many Russian artists. Ukraine later banned Depardieu and
   has also blacklisted more than 100 Russian films.
   
   The cultural war with Moscow continued this year when Kiev banned
   Russia's Eurovision entrant, Yulia Samoilova, for performing in Crimea
   in 2015. Samoilova plans to give another concert in Crimea when the
   contest is held in Kiev on 13 May.
   
   Ukraine earned the right to host the competition when its 2016 entrant,
   Jamala, won with a song about Joseph Stalin's deportation of the
   Crimean Tatars, which was also interpreted as a commentary on the 2014
   annexation.
   
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   Steven Seagal
   Ukraine / Russia / Europe / news "