Ukraine bans French lawmakers who visited Crimea

She said that after the recent visit of French parliamentarians to Crimea, the Foreign Ministry asked the Security Service of Ukraine to impose certain restrictions banning the parliamentarians from visiting Ukraine again. The country is also considering banning the movies in which Depardieu and other stars that do not have a kind word for Ukraine appear.

In January 2013 Mr Putin signed a decree granting him Russian citizenship after the actor publicly clashed with the French government over high taxes.

The Interfax news agency quoted security spokeswoman Elena Gitlanskaya as saying that the ban came at the behest of the culture ministry.

The website Apostrof reportedly published a letter from the SBU that stated the reason for the ban was “in the interest of ensuring the security of our state”. Moreover, Depardieu had more-or-less denied the very existence of the country through his comments past year.

Officials in Ukraine have announced a new threat to national security: French film legend Gerard Depardieu. However, Hitlyanska did not cite anything specific that Depardieu had said.

Depardieu never denied making the comments or enjoying warm relations with Putin, who backed the rule of corruption-tainted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych ousted by pro-European protests previous year. Putin, he said, is one of his good pals.