Ukraine’s government has included Italian musician and entertainer Al Bano on a national security blacklist. 

Al Bano - an unlikely national security threat. Photo: Wikipedia

The singer, whose real name is Albano Carrisi, is one of the 147 names on the list published by the Ukrainian government’s culture minstry on Monday.

The published list does not give explain why individuals are listed as a national security threat, but Al Bano’s admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin is a likely cause.

Al Bano has openly said that he believes Crimea, which Putin annexed in 2014, is Russian territory and also praised Putin’s leadership style.

“Italy could do with someone like him,” the singer, who in the 1980s became a household name across much of the former Soviet Union, had said.