Putin’s pal Gerard Depardieu isn’t the only foreign celeb on Ukraine’s blacklist

KYIV, Ukraine — Besides messing with your reputation, hobnobbing with Russian President Vladimir Putin may have a new consequence: getting banned from Ukraine.

Sensational French actor Gerard Depardieu found that out the hard way late Tuesday, after Ukraine’s state security service blocked him from entering the country for five years.

OK, maybe it wasn’t strictly for palling around with Putin. Local media report the 66-year-old Frenchman was speaking out against Ukraine’s territorial integrity — in other words, taking Russia’s side in a fierce geopolitical conflict that’s raged since early last year.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) didn’t specify any of Depardieu’s allegedly incriminating comments. But the move is widely believed to be in response to the actor’s support of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea last year. 

Depardieu has not made a public statement on the ban.

The 66-year-old Frenchman has enjoyed a blossoming love affair with Russia in recent years. He has repeatedly praised the Russian president and his policies. In 2013, Putin personally granted him Russian citizenship.

Russian officials even suggested on Tuesday that Depardieu should head up Crimea's wine industry. 

Depardieu is well known for keeping other controversial company in these parts too.

He has hung out with Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, feared for his ruthless rule and alleged human rights abuses, and gotten mowing tips from Belarus' autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko.

But it seems he won’t be the only one getting the cold shoulder from Ukraine’s security services.

Last week, the country’s culture minister said his office sent a list of 500 other foreign cultural figures, who civic activists say also threaten Ukraine's national security through their words or actions, to Ukrainian security officials for review.

The names have not become public, but many are wondering who else is on the list. French media speculated that Hollywood director Oliver Stone, who said last year’s pro-democracy revolution in Kyiv was a CIA coup, and action star Steven Seagal, who played a concert in Crimea last summer, may also be on the list.

Some Russian icons have already felt the heat: On Sunday, a music club in the southern city of Odessa canceled a show by popular Russian rapper Timati, who is a Putin supporter, after a complaint by regional governor MikheilSaakashvili.