Vladimir Putin this week gave Steven Seagal a Russian “Order of Friendship” award.
The Russian International Ministry lauded Seagal for his work in “humanitarian cooperation.”
The American actor, who additionally holds Russian citizenship, has lengthy expressed help for Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has given actor Steven Seagal a Russian “Order of Friendship” award.
Putin’s decree on February 27 lauded Seagal — who holds dual US and Russian citizenship — for his “nice contribution to the event of worldwide cultural and humanitarian cooperation.”
This isn’t the primary time Seagal has been praised by the Russian authorities. He was appointed as a “particular consultant” of the Russian authorities in 2018 to assist construct a “mutual understanding and belief between the Russian and American peoples,” per a Facebook post from the Russian International Ministry.
“We recognize Mr. Seagal’s willingness to make use of his expertise and authority for promotion of the Russia-US public, cultural, and humanitarian hyperlinks in addition to for constructing a extra constructive ambiance in bilateral affairs,” the Russian International ministry wrote in August 2018.
The “Underneath Siege” actor and martial arts practitioner’s help for Russia and Putin dates again not less than a decade.
In 2012, Seagal visited Russia and watched a mixed martial arts fight with Putin. He has since been vocal about his love for the Russian chief.
“I am Russian, I like Russia, I like Russian individuals, and I like your president. I actually like that he does a lot to help martial arts in Russia,” Seagal advised the Russian Dozhd TV station in 2013, The Guardian reported.
Seagal’s proclamations turned political in 2014 when he expressed help for Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Parroting Kremlin propaganda, he mentioned it was “very cheap” for Putin to need to “defend the Russian-speaking individuals of Crimea, his belongings, and the Russian Black Sea army base in Sevastopol,” Forbes reported, citing Seagal’s interview with the Russian state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
In 2016, Putin gave Seagal a Russian passport throughout a assembly in Moscow, per the Guardian. And in August — because the Ukraine warfare raged — Seagal additionally took on the position of an off-the-cuff Kremlin spokesperson. He was seen visiting a prison within the Donbas area, a Russian-occupied a part of Ukraine, the place he pushed unsubstantiated, Kremlin-fueled claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was bombing his personal troops within the area.
In the meantime, Ukraine in 2017 banned Seagal from getting into the nation for 5 years, citing nationwide safety issues, per Reuters.
Representatives for Seagal didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark.
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