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On Saturday, according to German tabloid Bild, the Ukrainian Ministry of Cultural Affairs introduced a blacklist of pro-Kremlin actors and singers, and legendary French-born movie star Gérard Depardieu happens to be one of the unfortunate 13 celebrities banned by the junta. “The Ukrainian 13” does sound a bit like a blockbuster title, but the junta wasn’t joking when it released a list of celebrities banned from Ukrainian television, radio broadcasts, and movie theatres. The new list only adds to more than 100 Russian films and television shows prohibited in the Ukraine since 2014, as the junta is gradually trying to stamp out Russian pop culture. Depardieu wasn’t on the list by mistake. It’s no secret that the junta banned the 66-year-old star from entering the Ukraine for five years in July. However, Ukrainian Culture Minister I G Kirilenko said that the sanctions wouldn’t affect Depardieu’s films. It seems that the time has come, and from now on, they won’t even allow Depardieu on the screens.
Gérard Depardieu became a huge international star at young age, featured in such films as The Man in the Iron Mask, Les Misérables, and Green Card. In 2013, the actor left France in protest against a proposed new top tax rate of 75 percent. President V V Putin granted him Russian citizenship, and Depardieu adopted Russia as his new homeland. His Russian citizenship didn’t outrage the junta; they stamped him as a “threat to national security” due to his frank comments on Ukraine’s integrity and his close relations with the Kremlin, with President Putin, in particular. At a film festival in Latvia in 2014, Depardieu said, “I love Russia and the Ukraine, which is part of Russia”… this could be the main reason Kiev is so displeased with him. Since the pro-western junta came to power in Kiev, such comment is enough to turn someone into persona non grata.
Amongst other banned celebrities is 77-year-old Russian singer and legislator I D Kobzon, known as the “Soviet Frank Sinatra”. Previously, he had his European assets frozen and the EU banned him from travel to Europe for his alleged role in the Ukrainian crisis {Iosif Davydovich is a Donetsk homie and he’s given much humanitarian aid to his hometown: editor}. Besides this, Ukrainian intelligence agencies submitted another list of 500 more international celebrities that they think that the junta should ban from the Ukraine.
10 August 2015
Sputnik International
Plotnitsky Honoured I D Kobzon for His Contributions to the Development of the Republic
Tags: civil unrest, Igor Plotnitsky, Iosif Kobzon, LNR, Lugansk People's Republic, Novorossiya, patriotic, patriotism, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Russian culture
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Head of the LNR Government I V Plotnitsky honoured People’s Artist of the USSR I D Kobzon “for his invaluable contribution to the development of our young Republic”. The ceremony was at the Lenin Palace of Culture in Lugansk, where Iosif Davydovich gave a New Year’s concert. Plotnitsky said at the award ceremony:
Iosif Davydovich replied:
28 December 2015
LITs Lugansk Information Centre
http://lug-info.com/news/one/glava-lnr-vruchil-nagradu-kobzonu-za-vklad-v-razvitie-respubliki-foto-9557