Russia’s president Vladimir Putin with Steven Seagal on Russky island, near Vladivostok, in 2015 Credit: ALEXEY DRUZHININ/EPA
The star of Exit Wounds was already on a proposed blacklist after he said Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 was “very reasonable” and he later performed with his blues band at a concert in Crimea supporting separatists.
A deadly conflict has been simmering between the two countries since Russia’s seizure of the territory.
Ukraine considers Crimea illegally occupied territory and reserves the right to impose a travel ban on anyone who visits it without obtaining appropriate permission from Kiev first.
The fighting has spilled over into a cultural war, with Ukraine barring Yulia Samoylova, Russia’s contender in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, from entering the country for three years, effectively banning her from the final in Kiev this month.
Russian singer Yulia Samoylova has also been banned from entering Ukraine Credit: EPA/Russian TV Channel 1
Depardieu is another foreign cultural figure who has been prohibited from entering Ukraine.
The French actor, who became a Russian citizen in 2013, was barred in 2015 after he publicly supported “the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
Seagal had made regular visits to Russia since the 1990s, when he opened a branch of restaurant chain Planet Hollywood in Moscow.
Steven Seagal with Vladimir Putin at a boxing championship in Sochi in 2012 Credit: ALEKSEY NIKOLSKY/AFP
He is understood to be close friends with Vladimir Putin, hailing him as “one of the great living world leaders”.
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