As dozens of Russia-aligned world leaders gathered in Moscow to pay homage to its army, state media noticed one visitor standing out from the group — the ’90s Hollywood motion star Steven Seagal.
Between photographs of armored autos rumbling down the cobbled streets close to the Kremlin, Seagal appeared briefly in a close-up throughout the state media outlet Izvestia’s protection of Russia’s Victory Day.
A separate clip of the film martial artist transferring by means of the group on Friday additionally circulated on social media over the weekend.
The French information company Agence France-Presse reported from Moscow that Seagal was seen sitting close to a Russian nationalist biker gang known as the Evening Wolves.
Seagal, a longtime friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been vocal about his help for Moscow and gained Russian citizenship in 2016. Russia’s international ministry made Seagal a particular consultant in 2018 to advertise Russian tradition to the US, and he continued to publicly align himself with the Kremlin after it invaded Ukraine.
He wasn’t the one US film persona to attend Friday’s parade. Oliver Stone, a three-time Oscar-winning director who’s made a four-hour documentary about Putin, was additionally photographed on the occasion.
Stone has additionally usually praised Putin, calling him a “nice chief” in a Might 2023 interview with The Guardian. The director was photographed shaking Putin’s hand throughout a reception for international leaders on Friday.
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Their look on the parade marks how Russia sought to raise the grandeur of this 12 months’s occasion for the eightieth anniversary of Nazi Germany’s give up in World Conflict II.
The previous two years’ Victory Day parades had featured scaled-back processions, largely believed to be due to Russia conserving resources such as tanks and aircraft for the warfare. A couple of world leaders — principally from jap European and central Asian states — had appeared to look at the occasion.
On Friday, nevertheless, Moscow placed on a full present for roughly two dozen leaders, together with China’s Xi Jinping, in attendance.
Iskander and Yars ballistic missiles, Twister-S a number of rocket launchers, and fashionable T-90 predominant battle tanks wheeled previous a raft of cameras on the road, and Su-25 fighter jets roared over central Moscow with coloured smoke.
Additionally featured within the procession for the primary time have been Russian assault drones, which have change into the Kremlin’s staple weapons within the warfare.
Xinhua Information Company/Xinhua Information Company by way of Getty Pictures
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