Steven Seagal, who is currently banned from Ukraine after being labeled a threat to national security, has been named a “special representative” of the Russian Foreign Ministry. A Russian citizen since 2016 and ally of Vladimir Putin who vehemently denies that the country interfered in America’s 2016 presidential election, Seagal’s role will concern “the sphere of culture, public and youth exchanges” and be similar to that of a United Nations goodwill ambassador.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Facebook post announcing the appointment, Seagal will not receive a monetary reward for his duties – such is his commitment to Mother Russia.
That same commitment is the reason the “Under Siege” and “Hard to Kill” has been deemed persona non grata by neighboring Ukraine, which bans those who have “committed socially dangerous actions … that contradict the interests of maintaining Ukraine’s security.” Seagal has called Russia’s annexation of Crimea “very reasonable.”
“For anyone to think that Vladimir Putin had anything to do with fixing the elections, or even that the Russians have that kind of technology, is stupid,” Seagal said during an appearance on “Good Morning Britain” last year. “And this kind of propaganda is really a diversion…so that the people in the United States of America won’t really see what’s happening.
|Source: IMDb]