French actor Gérard Depardieu has reportedly been blacklisted by Ukraine as a “threat to [the country’s] national security” after making comments in support of his adopted homeland, Russia.
The 66-year-old film star and amateur vintner was included in a list of 500 foreign cultural figures who “speak out in support of violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine” that the culture ministry has submitted to the national security council for approval, the country’s culture minister, Vyacheslav Kirilenko, told Ukrainska Pravda newspaper on Wednesday.
Depardieu apparently earned Kiev’s animosity with a comment at a film festival in Latvia in 2014, where he said: “I love Russia and Ukraine, which is part of Russia.” Tensions between the countries rocketed that year after a pro-western government came to power in Kiev and Moscow annexed Crimea and backed pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine.
American actor Steven Seagal was also on the Ukrainian blacklist, along with Serbian singer Goran Bregović and numerous Russian movie stars, according to Russian state news agency Tass. Over the past year, Ukraine has blacklisted more than 100 Russian films and television shows and banned all productions made since 2014, a far-reaching measure in a country that has long enjoyed Russian pop culture.
As recently as 2013, Depardieu went to a French circus show in Kiev and sampled wine at a vineyard in Crimea, which was then controlled by Ukraine, but such visits will no longer be possible if the security council adopts sanctions against him.
It was previously reported that Ukrainian media would not be able to name the actor or publish images of him, and that his films would be restricted in the country. But Kirilenko said the sanctions would not affect Depardieu’s movies.
Since the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, granted him Russian citizenship in 2013, the actor, who was nominated for an Academy Award for 1990’s Cyrano de Bergerac, has received greater attention for eccentric statements and hobnobbing with autocrats. He left France in protest against a proposed new top tax rate of 75%.
Depardieu has praised his friend Putin as a “strong leader” and danced at a birthday party for Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been accused of human rights abuses as head of Russia’s Chechen Republic.
He has appeared in Russian films and a television series, and in December, he teamed up with luxury watchmaker Cvstos to produce a “Proud to be Russian” line.
Even as he was being blacklisted from Ukraine, Depardieu’s love for the former Soviet Union was only expanding as he visited Belarus on Wednesday.
Besides trying the national cuisine and steaming in a traditional sauna, the actor was pleasantly surprised by what he saw at agricultural settlement and “really liked Belarusian woman”, according to Belarus’s ambassador to France, Pavel Latushko.
In May, pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine invited Depardieu to visit rebel-controlled Donetsk to see a “bubbling spring of life”. The invitation was in response to a Vanity Fair interview in which Depardieu said he sometimes wants “to fall asleep forever” and was “ready to die for Russia because the people there are strong”.
The actor’s spokesman said he would be willing to go if the visit didn’t have political overtones, adding that Depardieu intended to visit Crimea.