Steven Seagal has never made a secret of his deep and abiding love of all things Russia. The former action star, who spent much of the early ’90s kicking ass, was even granted Russian citizenship in 2016, then named Russia’s special envoy to the U.S. two years later — a role which he recently tried to back out of due to the escalating tensions between the U.S. and Russia. Whether or not he was officially taken off special envoy duty is unclear, as the Above the Law star recently showed up in Ukraine to spread some bullsh*t about president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s attempts to silence a “Nazi” being held at a prison in Donetsk. And on Thursday, he appeared on Russian state TV to report on what he saw while visiting the now-destroyed Olenivka prison.
Meanwhile in Russia: Moscow’s mouthpieces pulled out what they see as one of their big guns, Steven Seagal. Here are some highlights from his state TV appearance tonight, where he was spreading Kremlin propaganda like there’s no tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/cDCKHfI2Vb
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) August 12, 2022
First of all: For someone who spends so much time palling around with Vladimir Putin, it’s odd that he doesn’t seem to speak a lick of the language. But we digress.
When asked to describe the kind of destruction he saw in Donetsk, Seagal explained:
I’ve been sort of studying this conflict closely, and noticed that it’s probably the most astronomical compilation of fake news that I’ve ever seen in my life. Then I started investigating and realized that about 98 percent of the reporting about Ukraine is done by people who’ve never been there. The information they’re receiving is from troll farms, and they don’t even know what the source is. And not just troll farms — even major outlets, they get this stuff and just circulate it. It’s so maddening.
Seagal went on to explain an epiphany he had, which he shared with the foreign minister: “Fake news is more dangerous than nuclear missiles.”
Hmmmm….
The Bearded One explained what he meant by that, which is a good thing, because it really did require some additional context. But Seagal’s point was that if you “really proliferate fake news to the point that people in your nation have no idea what the truth is, that means that their hearts and minds could be led into anything.”
Like, say, appearing on Russian television to be a mouthpiece for one of the world’s most dangerous tyrants.