Steven Seagal supports Vladimir Putin, who is seeking his fifth term as Russian president.
The 72-year-old actor and martial artist was photographed attending President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration ceremony at the Moscow Kremlin on Tuesday, May 7.
Seagal, who has Russian ancestry and citizenship, has long been a supporter of President Vladimir Putin, 71. Back in March, the controversial dictator was re-elected as the country’s president in a landslide and will remain in office until at least 2030.
President Putin is the longest-serving Kremlin leader since dictator Joseph Stalin, who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953.
Representatives for Mr. Seagal did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Tuesday.
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Seagal has an unconventional relationship with Russia, having been granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin in 2016. He was then tasked with improving relations between Russia and Washington.
According to Reuters, President Putin awarded Seagal the Russian Order of Friendship in February 2023 “as a reward for his international humanitarian and cultural work.”
Meanwhile, President Putin’s re-election and inauguration took place amidst the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
U.S. officials announced in August 2023 that the total casualties of Ukrainian and Russian forces since the start of the war were approaching 500,000. According to the nonprofit organization Save the Children, an average of 42 civilians were killed or injured each day during the two years of war.
Mr. Putin previously worked as a foreign intelligence officer for Russia’s intelligence agency, the KGB, but ultimately turned to politics in 1991. Putin was appointed as acting president in August 1999 by then-President Boris Yeltsin, who resigned on New Year’s Eve. Until the official elections in a few months.
In recent years, Seagal has worked with Portia de Rossi, Julianna Margulies, Jenny McCarthy, inside edition Correspondent Lisa Guerrero.
In 2018, the actor was accused of rape by an extra who appeared in the 1994 film. in the land of deathwho said The Wrap She was 18 at the time of the incident, which she claimed happened after he invited her to a wrap party at his home in Beverly Hills, California, in 1993.
Mr. Seagal denies the accusations against him.