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Steven Seagal, the American actor best known for his role in '90s action movies such as Hard to Kill and Under Siege, has been blacklisted from the Ukraine as a national security threat.

Seagal is banned from entering the countryfor five years on grounds he has "committed socially dangerous actions ... that contradict the interests of maintaining Ukraine's security," according to a Ukrainian security service letterpublished by the news site Apostropheand reported by the Guardian.

The 65-year-old actor has for years cultivated a friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, bonding over their love of martial arts and shared macho images.

Though the Ukrainian security letter does not outline specific statements that got the actor banned, Seagal once participated in a pro-Putin motorcycle rally in Crimea, a disputed peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in a revolution.

In an interview then, Seagal defended Russia's 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, the Moscow Times reported.

Seagal's Crimea comments made him persona non grata in another country, Estonia, 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.

During the Obama administration, Seagal often praised the Kremlin while criticizing U.S. 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.

The feeling seemed mutual. Putin would later propose that Seagal become an honorary Russian envoy to the United States.

In November, Putin granted Russian citizenship to Seagal, presenting him with a Russian passport in a formal ceremony.

It was an ending fit for Hollywood, The Washington Post's Andrew Roth reported then, one that consummated an odd-couple bromance that has blossomed despite years of dark relations between the two men's respective countries.

Seagal, who openly supported Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential race, has appeared in numerous direct-to-video films since breaking out as an action star in the 1990s. He also starred in his own reality show on the Reelz Network, Steven Seagal: Lawman, in which showed him teamingup with law enforcement organizations in Louisiana and Arizona.

I think our biggest problem is the open border, Seagal told ABC15 News in a 2014 interview about the Arizona season of the show. I think this is a tremendous oversight by our current administration. As Ronald Reagan once said, if we don't have security on our borders, we don't have a country.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko welcomes American actor Steven Seagal to his residence in Minsk and feeds him homegrown vegetables. (Reuters)

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Excerpt from:
Amid Putin 'bromance,' Steven Seagal banned from Ukraine as national security threat - Washington Post

Steven Seagal is a threat to national security: Ukraine New York Post Seagal, 65, known for movies such as Under Siege and Hard to Kill, has been deemed a threat by the Ukranian security service, the agency said in a letter to the Web site Apostrophe. The service's press secretary later confirmed the ban. The agency ...

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Steven Seagal is a threat to national security: Ukraine - New York Post

(Kyiv) A military tribunal in the separatist-held area of Ukraines Donetsk region convicted a professor with pro-Ukrainian views on trumped-up charges of illegal weapons possession on May 3, 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. The court sentenced the academic, Ihor Kozlovsky, to 32 months in prison. The de facto authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR) should immediately annul the sentence and free Kozlovsky.

Kozlovskys treatment from detention through trial has been a huge affront to the rule of law, and his conviction and sentence should be immediately annulled, said Tanya Cooper, Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch. Kozlovsky has been behind bars for nearly 15 months for no other reason than his political views, and he should be immediately released.

Kozlovsky, 63, spent a month incommunicado following his arbitrary detention on January 27, 2016. Before his arrest he taught anthropology and humanities at Donetsk University. He was known for his pro-Ukrainian views and for his active participation in an ecumenical prayer marathon in Donetsk for a united Ukraine in 2014. At the time of his detention, he was working on an article about the impact of the armed conflict on religious communities in separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine, focusing on the persecution and exodus of minority groups.

Kozlovskys wife, Valentina, told Human Rights Watch, that she was away in Kyiv when her husband was detained, and that their son, Svyatoslav, who was born in 1979 and who has Down syndrome, paralysis, and other disabilities, was alone in the apartment and unable to move. After representatives of the local authorities State Security Ministry (MGB) took Kozlovsky away, they forcibly entered and searched the family apartment. They seized all electronic devices in the apartment, some valuables, and many documents, including Svyatoslavs passport and medical documents.

Valentina Kozlovsky said she found out later from authorities that Kozlovsky was taken to an MGB detention facility, where he was held for a month incommunicado, without any contact with his family or a lawyer. On February 26, 2016, he was transferred to a pretrial prison in Donetsk, SIZO 5, where he remains. No family member has been able to see him since he was detained. He was allowed, however, to see a lawyer.

Kozlovskys other son, Aleksandr, told Human Rights Watch that on May 3, a military tribunal in Donetsk found his father guilty of possessing two grenades that had been allegedly found in his apartment during the search. Aleksandr Kozlovsky said that staff of an international organization were able to attend some of the hearings. He said that Kozlovskys lawyer cannot appeal the sentence because rulings by military tribunals in the separatist region are not subject to appeal. Apart from the bogus evidence underlying the conviction, Aleksandr Kozlovsky said, the judge also refused to consider his fathers age or the fact that he supported and provided care to a son with Down syndrome as mitigating circumstances when determining the sentence.

In the absence of a functional criminal justice system in the region, Kozlovsky stood little chance of getting a fair trial, Cooper said.

The conflict between the Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine led to the complete collapse of law and order in the areas controlled by the separatists. Since 2014 separatist forces have attacked, beaten, and threatened anyone they suspected of supporting the Ukrainian government, including journalists, local officials, and political and religious activists.

Human Rights Watch documented the arbitrary, incommunicado detention of nine civilians, including Ihor Kozlovsky, by Russia-backed separatists in a 2016 report. The civilians were held for weeks or months without charge and, in most cases, subjected to ill-treatment. Human Rights Watch found that the regions security officials operate without adherence to the rule of law, and are not subject to checks and balances. The MGB is the most feared organization in the separatist-controlled territory a black hole, as one man described it. Anyone the agents detain is fully at their mercy, and the victims relatives have no one to turn to.

International human rights law severely restricts trials of civilians before military courts. The UN Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that monitors compliance with the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), has said that [t]rials of civilians by military or special courts should be exceptional, i.e. limited to cases where the State party can show that resorting to such trials is necessary and justified by objective and serious reasons and where the regular civilian courts are unable to undertake the trials. The ICCPR also guarantees all criminal defendants a right to appeal: Everyone convicted of a crime shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law.

Detaining Kozlovsky and prosecuting him before a military court is another egregious example of disregard by the DNRs de facto authorities for the rule of law, Cooper said. The entire case against him is a travesty, designed to deny him the possibility to effectively defend himself and to punish him for his peaceful opposition to separatists actions.

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Ukraine: Prison Sentence for Academic in Separatist Region - Human Rights Watch

Its now three years since the uprising in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. Since then, the Ukrainian army (supported by several nationalist militias) has been fighting Russia-backed rebels from the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic.

The conflict, supposedly under a cease-fire since an agreement in February 2015, has been escalating during the first months of 2017, according to the latest reports. Yet the war remains mostly static, transforming the landscape into something resembling World War I, with trenches and machine-gun positions all along the contact line.

After three years, the only war in Europe doesnt seem to be approaching an end. A powerful and bellicose Russia and the events going on in Syria and Iraq have relegated this conflict to oblivion, even for Ukraines European neighbors. In the meantime, according to the Ukrainian government, the war has left around 10,000 dead and 30,000 wounded, as well as 1.4 million internally displaced.

Text and photography by Manu Brabo/MeMo

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Ukraine: A forgotten war in Europe - Yahoo News

What is Yanukovych accused of?

Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovych stands accused of treason. Specifically, he is accused of supporting actions with the goal of changing the national borders and territory of Ukraine. He is also accused of aiding Russia incarryingout an attack on his country.

Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014 and was impeached shortly thereafter

The Ukrainian state prosecutor's website states that Yanukovych "committed treason by helping the Russian Federation and its representatives to violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine." In doing so, the former presidenthoped to receive support and protection from Russian officials.

Yanukovych now lives in exile in Russia, which has declined to extradite him. He will be tried in absentia.

Read more: EU risks losing legal battle against Yanukovych

What punishment is Yanukovych facing?

In Ukraine, treason usually receives a prison sentence of between 10 to 15 years. A similar sentence is also typically awarded for supporting an act of war or military aggression against the country.

What evidence does the prosecution have?

The most important pieces of evidence are letters written by Yanukovych to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation Council, asking for Russian troops to be sent to Ukraine.

Read more: Ukraine cuts electricity to pro-Russian separatist area as Russia steps in

According to Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, the Ukrainian military state prosecutor has copies of such letters, authenticated by the United Nations (UN) and presented at a meeting of the UN Security Council on March 3, 2014, by Russian representative Vitaly Churkin. The military state prosecutor's office also says it has witness testimony, as well as other objects, documents, expert evaluations, and video and photo material.

Trial witness and Kremlin critic Denis Voronenkov was killed at the end of March

Who are the witnesses?

More than 100 witnesses have been interviewed. One of them was the former statedeputy in the Russian parliament, Denis Voronenkov, who was murdered by a suspected contract killer in downtown Kyiv at the end of March 2017. But the military prosecutor says Voronenkov was no more important than the other witnesses, and that his death will not have a decisive impact on the case.

What position is Yanukovych's defense taking?

Yanukovych's defense maintains that it is illegal for treason proceedings to be handed to a court. His lawyer, Vitaliy Serdyuk, says there is no legal basis for the case because Yanukovych has not had notification of official charges presented to him.

In November 2016, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko questioned Yanukovych via video link in connection with an investigation into members of the now defunct special police unit, Berkut, that had been deployed against demonstrators in the February 2014 Maidan protests. During the questioning, Lutsenko told Yanukovych that he was being accused of treason, but the former presidenthas yet to have the charges presented against him in writing.

Attorney Serdyuk also says that the defense has documented numerous procedural errors, in order to present them to the European Court for Human Rights.

Read more: EU lifts some sanctions on Yanukovych

The Maidan protests helped bring Yanukovych's presidency to an end

What other criminal cases is Yanukovych involved in?

Yanukovych is involved in other cases, including the Maidan investigation, in whichprosecutors are trying to find out who ordered the use of disproportionate force against demonstrators in the mass protests between November 2013 and February 2014.

Read more: Yanukovych ally faces US extradition over bribery charges

In a separate case, Yanukovych is accused of having formed criminal groups; he's also a suspect in the Mezhyhirya case, which centers on the former president's controversial private residence.

In addition, Yanukovych is a suspect in a graft case surrounding the privatization of Ukrtelecom. That case has to do with the embezzlement of more than 7 million euros ($7.6 million) ofstate funds earmarked for a government telecommunications system.

Another case involving Yanukovych centers on the former president's residence

Excerpt from:
Treason trial against Yanukovych begins in Ukraine - Deutsche Welle