Actor Steven Seagal reportedly joined the pro-Kremlin Party “Just Russia — Patriots — For Truth” on Saturday. The actor is also proposing tougher laws on businesses in favor of a climate change agenda.
Seagal received a party membership card for the pro-Kremlin Party, according to a video released by the Party itself, Reuters reports.
“Just Russia — Patriots — For Truth” was created earlier this year, after three leftist parties — all of which support Putin — merged into one.
Seagal is also proposing tougher laws that crack down on businesses that do damage to the environment.
“Without being able to arrest people, when we just fine them, they are probably making more money off the production of the things that are defiling the environment,” the actor said in his welcome speech at a party event on Saturday.
At the event, Seagal also posed for photos next to Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin, one of the party leaders, who reportedly enrolled in an army of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine and has admitted to commanding a combat unit in a conflict that killed 14,000 people over the course of seven years.
“Just Russia — Patriots — For Truth” controls a faction in the lower house of the Russian parliament, and plans to participate in a parliamentary election this September, reports Reuters.
Seagal — who is a longtime admirer of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin — became a Russian citizen in 2016 after Putin signed an order granting him citizenship.
The granting of Russian citizenship came two years after Seagal officially endorsed Russia’s annexation of Crimea, adding that Putin was like a “brother” to him.
In 2018, Russia appointed the actor as a Special Representative on Foreign Policy for Russia, tasking the actor with improving U.S.-Russian humanitarian ties.
Earlier this month, Seagal visited Venezuela as a Russian representative and gifted Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro a samurai sword.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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