Steven Seagal, the famed American martial artist and actor, was today given an award by Russian president Vladimir Putin. Seagal has resided there for some years, posing himself as a cultural ambassador, receiving citizenship, and occasionally making straight-to-streaming films in which he moves as little as possible.
Other recipients of the “Friend of Russia” medal include Rex Tillerson, U.S. Secretary of State during the Trump administration, and whoever the current president of FIFA is.
From Reuters:
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has bestowed a top state award on Hollywood actor Steven Seagal to reward him for his international humanitarian and cultural work, a state decree published on Monday showed.
The decree said the 70-year-old star of action films such as “Under Siege” had been given Russia’s Order of Friendship. There was no immediate reaction from Seagal.
The decree mentioned Seagal’s work as a special representative of Russia’s Foreign Ministry for humanitarian ties with the United States and Japan.
The U.S.-born actor and martial arts practitioner has worked in Japan and has long admired Putin, from whom he received a Russian passport in 2016.
Seagal, a frequent visitor to Russia, backed Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 as “very reasonable”, joined a pro-Kremlin party in 2021, and visited a Russian-controlled part of eastern Ukraine last summer, where he met with a Russian-backed separatist leader.
Ukraine in 2017 banned Seagal from entering for five years on national security grounds.
