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Pearls of Kremlin propaganda
From star to Putin lackey – how Steven Seagal became a weapon of the Kremlin
Steven Seagal at a meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2015. He has been propaganda for the Kremlin for years.
© AP Images/Alexei Druzhinin / Picture Alliance
Kremlin propaganda is wielding what it believes to be its strongest weapon: Steven Seagal. The former actor puts his heart and soul into Putin’s service.
Steven Seagal was a star of martial arts movies in the ’90s. At the peak of his career, his name was mentioned along with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But Seagal could not stay on the Hollywood Olympus for long. One scandal followed the other. Sometimes the former sheriff almost declared himself the messiah, sometimes he broke the wrist of his fellow actor Sean Connery, sometimes he threw a stuntman against the wall. When several female co-stars also accused Seagal of sexual assault, he did what many fallen stars do: he tried his luck in the East.
First, Seagal obtained Serbian citizenship. And finally he landed at the gates of the Kremlin. For Putin, Seagal came as a gift — wrapped in a red bow. After all, a renegade Hollywood star can be cannibalized for his propaganda.
And that’s how Seagal earns his bread today as a loyal Putinist – and probably also his right to stay in Russia. After almost six months of war, the Kremlin’s favorite propagandist Vladimir Solovyov conjured the former star out of a hat. The black-and-red stage was all Seagal’s when he showed up at the Solovyov’s studio on Thursday night. “An incredible guest. A great martial arts master, actor, director and diplomat,” the talk master indulges in praise. “An icon of several generations of boys.”
You almost think you see twice. There he stands – the secret weapon of the Kremlin propaganda arsenal, dressed in a dark blue suit with a hint of the Far East. This type of robe is also Solovyov’s trademark. The Kremlin servant, who is usually dressed in black, stands opposite his guest of honor and delivers the through ball.
Steven Seagal sings The Kremlin’s Love
What follows is a rehearsed lecture. Seagal parrots the Kremlin’s propaganda manuals word for word. “I’m studying this conflict and I’m watching a great deal of lying news. (…) Fake news is worse than nuclear weapons. (…) The world needs to understand the difference between lies and truthful news,” he begins litany on. That’s why he’s making a documentary. He was in Donbass and also visited Olenivka, where until recently Ukrainian prisoners of war were being held, including members of the Azov regiment.
The town of Olenivka gained notoriety at the end of July after a prisoner barracks was completely destroyed and at least 50 people died. Russia explained the incident using its usual tactics. It is said that the Ukrainians themselves killed the Ukrainian prisoners. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that a US-supplied Himars multiple rocket launcher was deployed.
Seagal now joins in the same song. He is a “billion percent” certain that a Himars missile wiped out the lives of the prisoners. “You could see that a rocket hit from outside and burned everything,” he asserts in Solovyov’s studio. “I know about such things. And I can say there was no explosion from the ground.”
“I’ve seen fragments of a Himars rocket before. It was fragments like this,” he explains. On which occasion Seagal claims to have seen fragments of a Himars rocket, he does not reveal. Instead, he once again reminds Russian audiences of the myth that Ukraine is being populated by Nazis.
“Stepan Bandera and his teachings are very common in Ukraine. There are hundreds of thousands of Nazis there. And many of them want to fight and kill,” he wants to know.
“I am Russian”
And off we go with the next fairy tale, which is part of the standard repertoire of every Kremlin propagandist. “Kyiv has been bombing Luhank and Donetsk for eight years. More than 15,000 Russians were murdered there,” says Seagal, undermining the image of a “neutral diplomat” that he and Solovyov tried so hard to conjure up. And as if that weren’t enough, Seagal leaves no doubt as to whose service he is with his last few sentences.
“Many cultural workers fled Russia as quickly as they could after February 24. But you came back. Why?” Solovyov introduces the big final punchline. “Because I’m Russian!” Seagal replies stoically – but in English, although according to Solovyov he speaks Russian with almost no accent. “This is my home!”
“I like that answer,” Solovyov nodded seriously. The employer of the two actors certainly too.
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