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
Vladimir Putin presenting Steven Seagal with a Russian passport. Photograph: TASS / Barcroft Images
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.
Source and more: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/may/05/ukraine-bans-steven-seagal-national-security-russian-citizenship
Security service says it has forbidden Seagal entry into country for five years, after actor received Russian citizenship
Vladimir Putin presenting Steven Seagal with a Russian passport. Photograph: TASS / Barcroft Images
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.
Source and more: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/may/05/ukraine-bans-steven-seagal-national-security-russian-citizenship
