Putin decorates US actor Steven Seagal with ‘friendship’ award for role in ‘humanitarian cooperation’
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Russian President Vladimir Putin personally handed a Russian passport to actor Steven Seagal in 2016.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has bestowed a prestigious award on American actor Steven Seagal for his work on strengthening international “cooperation”, according to an official decree released on Monday.
In the decades since the height of his Hollywood fame, Seagal has been an outspoken supporter of Mr Putin, who granted the 70-year-old film star citizenship several years ago.
Moscow said Seagal was given the Order of Friendship for his “major contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation”.
Seagal, a frequent visitor to Russia, backed Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 as “very reasonable” and joined a pro-Kremlin party in 2021.
Last August, Seagal visited the eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk, including the destroyed Olenivka detention centre where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners were reported to have died.
Ukraine and Moscow traded blame for an attack on the facility last July.
Ukraine in 2017 banned Seagal from entering for five years on national security grounds.
In 2018, the Russian foreign ministry appointed Seagal a special representative for Russian-United States humanitarian ties.
He was granted Russian citizenship in 2016, when Mr Putin personally handed a Russian passport to the actor during a televised meeting.
Mr Rex Tillerson, the former US Secretary of State and chief executive of ExxonMobil, as well as Fifa president Gianni Infantino, are among the notable foreigners who have also received the award. AFP
