Russian President 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 “Order of Friendship” to the actor 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.
Member of a Russian nationalist party
Steven Seagal, 70, was one of the stars of American action cinema in the 1980s and 1990s.
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.