MOSCOW, RUSSIA - A decree of being a Russian citizen has been granted by the Russian President Vladimir Putin to a western action star Steven Seagal, the most recent prominent passport handout approval to a United States celebrity.
A 7th-dan Aikido black belt Seagal and a judo expert Kremlin extreme person Putin have struck up a manly relationship which in turn both became a friend when Seagal visiting Russia repeatedly and has accompanied Putin to several martial arts events, as well as vocally defending Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Besides his martial arts engagements with Putin, Seagal, who is Buddhist, has been a regular visitor to Buddhist regions of Russia.
He also visited in August Russian ally President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. and made Seagal eat his homegrown vegetables, a sampled local carrots in an awkward encounter that drew mockery and hatred online.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “He was asking obstinately and over a length period to be to be granted citizenship.”
“He is notable for his warm emotions towards our nation and has never hidden them,” Peskov said.
Seagal buddying up with Putin is the latest in a string of prominent Westerners to be allowed Russian citizenship by the Kremlin.
Seagal’s fame peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s with films such as “Under Siege” and “Above the Law”, but he remains hugely popular in eastern Europe and was granted Serbian citizenship in January.
Seagal did not instantly remark, however, he has previously offered fulsome recognition of Putin in various appearances on Russian state media like in a 2013 interview with channel RT- Russia. Wherein, Seagal called Putin “one of the greatest world leaders if not the greatest world leader alive today.”
Seagal said, “He cares more about Russia than anybody I know and he’s not afraid to stand up and do what needs to get done.”
Others which also gave same Russian citizenship privilege is an American mixed martial artist Jeff Monson, a US boxer Roy Jones Jr. after sipping tea with Putin in Crimea and in 2013 Gerard Depardieu a French actor of France after the star became a tax exile in ire over rate hikes in his native country. - JCE.
