Steven Seagal celebrates birthday with Russian elites

Steven Seagal celebrates birthday surrounded by Russian elites
American actor Steven Seagal was pictured visiting a prison camp in Olenivka, Ukraine, a Russian-controlled jail that housed hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners, days after an explosion killed at least 50 people there on July 29.
Seagal was banned from entering Ukraine for five years in 2017 after Putin gave him citizenship and personally handed him his Russian passport in 2016, after he vocally supported Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Seagal can be seen standing inside the wrecked prison and sitting down on a bench examining some shrapnel. There is also a picture of Seagal talking to Ukrainian prisoners through metal bars.

In February, Seagal told Fox News 'most of us have friends and family in Russia and Ukraine.'

'I look at both as one family and really believe it is an outside entity spending huge sums of money on propaganda to provoke the two countries to be at odds with each other,' he said.

In a statement on the blast, Ukraine's military said Russia planned 'the deliberate transfer of fighters to new premises shortly before the explosion' and cited it as evidence of 'the planned nature of this crime and its commission by the Russian side.'

Officials in Donetsk People's Republic, where Olenivka is located, have barred independent investigators from reaching the site.

Ukrainian authorities said prisoners were transferred to a different part of the prison before the attack, indicating that Russia knew of the attack ahead of time.

Moscow claims Ukraine orchestrated the attack with American-made HIMARS missiles to stop Ukrainian prisoners from divulging information, though doubts have been cast over the veracity of the claim.

Seagal's appearance at the prison appears to be an attempt to further that claim.

The Ukrainian security service said in a 2017 letter Seagal was barred from the country because he was a person 'committed socially dangerous actions … that contradict the interests of maintaining Ukraine’s security.'

Seagal, who is a well-known supporter of Putin, has served Russia's foreign ministry as 'special representative' since 2018 and is a citizen of Russia, the US and Serbia.

While it is unclear what responsibilities he had in the unpaid role, he admitted the role could 'change' due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

'Relations between the US and Russia, as you know, are very tense,' he told Russian publication RIA Novosti. 'There are discussions about how to change my position in terms of what I was previously appointed to.'

Seagal is known to be friendly with several other controversial world leaders, including Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko

Lukashenko is a close ally of Putin and has repeatedly echoed the Russian president's sentiments through his invasion of Ukraine, even calling the Russian military's massacre of civilians in Bucha western propaganda.

Seagal has also mingled with the likes of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, with whom he practiced karate.

Both Seagal and Putin are avid martial artists - Seagal is a longtime practitioner of aikido, while Putin has studied judo and sambo.

Putin was suspended as president of the International Judo Federation just weeks ago in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Seagal was spotted celebrating his 70th birthday in Moscow in April, rubbing elbows with many of Russia's elite who have been sanctioned by western countries.

Vladimir Soloviev, a controversial Russian TV presenter who openly backs Putin's invasion of Ukraine, can be seen standing with Seagal.

Seagal tells the crowd in English 'Each and every one of you, you are my family and my friends. And I love all of you and we stand together, through thick and through thin.'

On April 10, the day Seagal celebrated his birthday with Russia's elite, the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol said more than 10,000 civilians had died after enduring weeks of Russian bombing raids and hunger due to the siege.