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Russia has become a retreat for problematic old white dudes

Russia is being called home to actor, Gérard Depardieu, and most famously perhaps for his outspoken reveries of Russian politics, Steven Seagal.

Hollywood star, Steven Seagal was granted Russian citizenship in 2016 and has been a vocal supporter of Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea. It’s common knowledge that the actor is a big fan of Russia and its president. In recent images shared via socials, the two are seen buddying up hard.

In a show that cements his love for his new home, Seagal has shared a recent visit to Olenivka Prison, in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, going under the title of a “Special Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Relations between Russia”

seagal putin
Credit: BBC

The actor is seen in a video claiming that it was the US-supplied HIMARS rockets on the July 29 strike that left 53 jailed POWs dead and at least 75 others injured. 

Pushing an agenda that could only be called propaganda, the Hollywood star suggested, without a grain of evidence, that the site was destroyed on the orders of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “quiet” one of the prisoners.

“This is where HIMARS hit, 50 people were killed, another 70 were injured,” Seagal said in a video posted to the pro-Kremlin Russian news site TVZVEZDA on Tuesday.

“It definitely looks like a rocket. If you look at the burning and other details, of course, it’s not a bomb. Not to mention the fact that Russia really has a lot of artifacts from HIMARS.” He goes on to say, “the interesting thing is that one of the killed Nazis is a Nazi who just started talking a lot about Zelensky.” Seagal adds, “and that Zelensky is responsible for the orders about torture and other atrocities that violate not only the Geneva War Convention but are also crimes against humanity.”

Russia has already accused Ukraine’s military of bombing the prison with American-supplied HIMARS — a claim Kyiv has strongly denied, in turn accusing Kremlin of the attack to cover up the purported murder and torture of inmates.

Russia’s TV’s chief propagandist Vladimir Solovyev — known as “Putin’s voice” — wrote via his Telegram channel that Seagal had “personally examined the evidence, including fragments of American rockets, that prove Kyiv’s connection to the mass murder of their own soldiers.”

If the rumors are true, it’s been announced that Segal has plans to come out with a Documentary, “to change the perception on this war.” Noting that 98% of those who talk about the conflict in the media have never been here. That is why the world does not know the truth,”