Celebrated as an action star in the 90s, now best known as a supporter of the war: The actor and martial artist Steven Seagal has now received a medal from the Kremlin boss in addition to his Russian passport.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented Hollywood actor Steven Seagal with a high state award to honor his international humanitarian and cultural work, according to a state decree that has now been released. The 70-year-old action star, known from films such as “Red Alert” (original title “Under Siege”) was awarded the Russian Friendship Order, the decree said. Seagal has not yet commented on the award. The decree mentioned Seagal’s work as the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special envoy for humanitarian relations with the United States and Japan.
The US-born actor and martial artist has worked in Japan and has long admired Putin, from whom he received a Russian passport in 2016. In 2018, he began working as a special representative of the State Department in the United States and Japan. Since 2021 he has been a member of a pro-Kremlin party called “Fair Russia – Patriots – for the Truth”.
Seagal, a frequent visitor to Russia, backed Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region as “very sensible”. He also supports the war of aggression against Ukraine. After a visit to the Donbass last August, he justified the invasion as an “existential threat” to Russia by the Ukrainian “Nazis” to the Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, reports the Russian exile medium “Meduza”.
