American actor Steven Seagal, known in recent years rather for his pro-Russian position, visited pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and this move was widely criticized on social networks.

Several Western journalists shared photos of Segal visiting Olenivka prison, where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in an attack on July 29. The UN has already announced that they are preparing an investigative mission to find out the “truth” about the explosions in a prison controlled by pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region.

Journalist Oliver Alexander, a contributor to The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and Der Spiegel, was the first to uncover the images released by the Russian press, which questioned whether Segal was now helping the Russians cover up their war crimes at Olenivka.

Neil Gower, CNN’s war correspondent in Ukraine, also wonders how long it will be before Seagal gets “the Graham Phillips treatment and ends up under his country’s sanctions.” Phillips is a British “independent” YouTuber and journalist known for his pro-Russian and pro-Kremlin positions.

On July 26, the UK government imposed sanctions on Phillips, saying he “is a vlogger who has created and published media content that supports and promotes actions and policies that destabilize Ukraine and undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine.”

Max Seddon, editor-in-chief of The Financial Times’ Moscow bureau, quotes Denis Pusilin, who shared the photo with Segal on his Telegram channel. The leader of the Donetsk separatists says that an American actor is filming a documentary about the war in Donbas.

“The world does not know the truth. He wants to change the opinion about this war,” says Pusilin about the alleged documentary and Segal’s intentions.

Steven Seagal asked Russia for a new job

Seddon also mentions that Steven Seagal recently admitted that his dream of “fixing” relations between the United States and Russia has failed, and that he is in talks with the Russian government to offer him a new job.​​

In August 2018, Russia appointed Segal as a special representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow, who was supposed to “strengthen” humanitarian ties between the United States and Russia.

Oliver Alexander also shared a video broadcast by the Russian media from the visit of the American actor, in which he said that the Ukrainians bombed the Olenivska prison immediately after “one of the killed Nazis started talking a lot about Zelenskyi and that Zelenskyi ordered torture and other “. atrocities”.

The American actor also states that Zelensky’s alleged actions not only violate the Geneva Convention on War Crimes, but are also crimes against humanity. “So, if Zelensky was involved in crimes against humanity, I wonder if that’s why this guy was ‘shot’ and killed,” the American actor concludes.

Segal personally received a Russian passport from Vladimir Putin

In 2016, the Russian president personally presented the Michigan-born actor with a Russian passport, saying at the time that he hoped the gesture would signal a “normalization” of strained relations with Washington.

Sitting at a table in the Kremlin during the meeting, which was broadcast on Russian television, Putin showed the former Hollywood star where to sign her passport. Then they stood up and shook hands, Putin congratulated him, and Segal replied in Russian: “thank you very much.”

The Kremlin’s PR move comes less than a month after Putin granted the American actor Russian citizenship. “It was his wish, he actually asked for it. He even insisted for quite a long time, demanding that we give him citizenship. He is known for his warm feelings towards our country,” Kremlin press secretary Dmytro Peskov said at the time.

In May 2017, Ukraine banned Segal from entering its territory for 5 years, saying he posed a threat to national security. A year later, Segal announced that he was a representative of the interests of President Vladimir Putin and would like to become the governor of a Russian region. However, the Kremlin did not make any proposal to him in this regard.

Last summer, Steven Seagal was accepted into the Russia Only Party: Patriots for Truth, a nationalist political group known for its pro-Kremlin positions.

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