Putin's pal Steven Seagal is banned from Ukraine for five years as he's deemed a 'national security threat'
- Actor Steven Seagal has been banned from Ukraine for five years
- In a national security letter, the government claimed he has 'committed socially dangerous actions' against Ukraine's security
- Many say the ban is due to his relationship with Russian president Vladmir Putin
- In 2014, Seagal defended the annexation of Crimea while the US condemned it
- Putin granted the actor Russian citizenship in 2016 along with a Russian passport
Actor Steven Seagal has been banned from Ukraine as a national security threat.
The star, best known for the blockbusters Hard to Kill and Under Siege, will not be allowed to enter the Eastern European nation for the next five years.
According to a Ukrainian security service letter published by Apostrophe, the 65-year-old is banned on grounds that he has 'committed socially dangerous actions... that contradict the interests of maintaining Ukraine's security'.
Suspicions have arisen that this may be due to Seagal's relationship with Russian President Vladmir Putin, which has gone so far as to obtain a Russian passport and declare that he 'would like to consider [Putin] as a brother'.
Steven Segal has been banned from Ukraine for five years due to committing 'socially dangerous actions...that contradict the interests of maintaining Ukraine's security'. Many believe this is because of his relationship with Russian President Vladmir Putin (seen here at the mixed fight Championship in Sochi in August 2012)
Seagal has a close relationship with Russia and even participated in a pro-Putin motorcycle rally in Crimea, a disputed peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014 after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in a revolution (pictured right, at the rally)
The letter did not define any specific statements or actions that caused the star to be banned.
However, Seagal once participated in a pro-Putin motorcycle rally in Crimea, a disputed peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014 after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in a revolution.
In an interview at the time, Seagal defended the annexation of Crimea, saying that Putin's 'desire to protect the Russian-speaking people of Crimea, his assets, and the Russian Black Sea military base in Sevastopol...is very reasonable'.
In 2015, Seagal was included on a proposed banned list with other foreign actors such as France's Gérard Depardieu (who was later banned).
The comments about Crimea labeled Seagal a persona non grata in Estonia, one of the member countries of the former Soviet Union, where organizers of a 2014 music festival there canceled his set after backlash from the Estonian public.
'We hope that Estonian public will primarily view Seagal as an actor and musician,' said Raul Ukareda, program director for the festival, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
'But, as it turned out, everyone sees him only as a politician and Putin loyalist.'
Seagal is best-known for starring in blockbusters such as 1992's Under Siege (left) and 1990's Hard to Kill (right). In 2015, Seagal and other actors - including Gérard Depardieu - were included on a proposed blacklist a of foreign cultural figures who 'speak out in support of violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine'
In November 2016, Putin granted Seagal Russian citizenship along with a Russian passport in a honorary ceremony (pictured here at the Kremlin in Moscow in November 2016)
During former President Barack Obama's administration, Seagal often praised the Kremlin while criticizing US foreign policy.
In a 2013 interview with the Russian news channel RT, Seagal called Putin 'one of the greatest world leaders, if not the greatest world leader alive today'.
In return, Putin not only proposed Seagal become an honorary Russian envoy to the US but granted him Russian citizenship along with a passport in November 2016.
The cultural war with the Kremlin continued this year when Ukraine banned Russia’s Eurovision entrant Yulia Samoilova for performing in Crimea in 2015.
Samoilova plans to hold another concert in the peninsula when the competition is held in Kiev on 13 May.
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