Ukraine bans US Bloodhound Gang rocker for flag insult Published duration 7 August 2013

image caption Hasselhoff's flag stunts got him into trouble with Russian and Ukrainian officials

Ukraine has banned the bass guitarist of the US rock group Bloodhound Gang from entering the country for five years after he appeared to urinate on the Ukrainian flag.

Jared Hasselhoff's stunt took place during a concert in Kiev on 30 July. The next day he stuffed a Russian flag into his underpants on stage in Odessa.

An amateur video showing the Kiev stunt appeared on YouTube.

The band has also been barred from a Russian music festival.

Hasselhoff later apologised for the Odessa stunt, in which he pushed the flag into the front of his pants and pulled it out of the back, saying to fans, "Don't tell Putin".

The Ukrainian security service said that at the concert in Kiev, Hasselhoff "publicly desecrated the state flag of Ukraine" and "was "barred from entry for five years," RIA Novosti news agency reports.

On 2 August the band was due to perform at Russia's Kubana rock festival on the Black Sea coast, but the gig did not go ahead. Instead, they were questioned by police and told to leave Russia.

As the band were waiting in the airport lounge in the Russian resort of Anapa, a group of assailants describing themselves as Cossacks attacked them and stamped on the US flag, reports say.