(Moscow) Vladimir Putin on Monday decorated American actor Steven Seagal, a former Hollywood star who has become an active defender of the Russian president in recent years and, more recently, of his offensive against Ukraine.
Putin signed a decree awarding the actor the “Order of Friendship” for “his great contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation”, said a document published on the Russian government’s official legal website. .
Aikido specialist Steven Seagal, 70, was one of the stars of American action cinema of the 1980s and 1990s.
As his career waned, the native of Lansing, Michigan gradually grew closer to authoritarian leaders, including the head of the Kremlin.
In 2016, he received a Russian passport from the hands of Vladimir Putin, while retaining his American nationality. Installed since in Russia, he even joined in 2021 a nationalist party.
Last August, he traveled to eastern Ukraine to meet with the leader of pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, and offer his support.
He then visited the prison of Olenivka, near Donetsk, where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners died in an explosion this summer.
For the 70e Vladimir Putin’s birthday in October, Steven Seagal also recorded a video of support for the Russian president, whom he described as “one of the greatest leaders in the world”.
“I really hope and pray that he gets the support, love and respect he needs. And that all the current tribulations will soon end, that we will live in a world at peace,” Mr. Seagal added.