“He’s one of the greatest leaders in the world”: Steven Seagal, the former Hollywood star is an unconditional fan. The star of American action cinema of the 1980s and 1990s has a hero: Vladimir Putin and his fights, including Ukraine. This Monday the master of the Kremlin presented him with a “Decree of Friendship”. Thanks to “his great contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation,” according to the Russian government’s official legal website.
Age brings them together: they were both born in 1952. And we know how much the Russian president likes to show off his muscular muscles on horseback or fishing. He takes pride in his performance on the tatami. So, he is the first foreigner of the dojo in Japan and he admires this American for the action movies he has illustrated or directed. “Trap on the High Seas” The 1992 Andrew Davies-directed film catapulted him to prominence as one of the leading actors.
As his career declined, the native of Lansing, Michigan grew progressively closer to authoritarian leaders, including the head of the Kremlin, but Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who handed him a samurai sword in 2021.
In 2016, he retained his American citizenship and received a Russian passport from the hands of Vladimir Putin. The Russian president said he hoped to see it as a sign of the “normalization” of relations between Moscow and Washington. Both hailed it as a “completely apolitical act”. He was, however, a regular traveler to Moscow and championed Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Founded from Russia, he joined a nationalist party in 2021. Last August, he traveled to eastern Ukraine to meet with Denis Bushilin, the leader of pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, to offer his support. He later visited Olenivka prison near Donetsk, where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners died in an explosion this summer.
On Vladimir Putin’s 70th birthday in October, Steven Seagal also recorded a video in support of the Russian president. “I hope and pray that he gets the support, love and respect he needs. All the current troubles will end soon and we will live in a peaceful world,” the actor said.
“Alcohol enthusiast. Twitter ninja. Tv lover. Falls down a lot. Hipster-friendly coffee geek.”
