Steven Seagal attends Victory Day parade amid deepening ties with Russia and unresolved US legal issues
American actor Steven Seagal spotted in Moscow attending Victory Day military parade, hosted by Putin. pic.twitter.com/t2sWF6W7uN — Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 11, 2025
Seagal, a longtime ally of Putin, received Russian citizenship in 2016 and reportedly moved to Moscow in 2021 according to The Independent. His relocation followed legal troubles in the United States, where the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused him of failing to disclose payments for promoting a cryptocurrency. In 2021, a U.S. judge authorised the SEC to collect $200,000 in penalties from Seagal after he only partially settled the fine. According to reports, neither Seagal nor his representatives appeared in court in response to repeated SEC demands.
Over the years, Seagal has been appointed to symbolic roles by the Russian government, including Special Envoy for U.S.-Russia humanitarian relations. In 2023, Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship for his contributions to cultural diplomacy. Seagal, who has Russian ancestry, has publicly embraced his identity, stating, 'I am one million percent Russian.'
The Under Siege star also attended Putin's fifth inauguration in 2024 and released a documentary titled In the Name of Justice, where he voiced support for Russia and said he was ready to 'fight and die' for President Putin.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Drop scene at Alaska
Alaska has certainly been a pinnacle of political drama. American President Donald Trump announced a meet-up with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, one week before, on Truth Social. Alaska was special because it is cold and far-off and had been a possession of the Russian Empire from 1732 to 1867, and also because the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, and the ICC, which has issued Putin's arrest warrants. The hearts of the world audience throbbed with the idea of world's two most powerful men meeting in a far-off, snow-clad fairyland, where Zeus Trump was surely going to end the battle of Titanomachy in Tartarus Ukraine with the help of Prometheus Zelensky, subduing Titan Putin with his thunderbolt sanctions to a complete defeat or at least a ceasefire drop-scene. But reality is different from wishfulness. And the reality is that Putin is wining at the warfront. Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhian have been annexed as of 2022; and Crimea as of 2014. Kherson is over two-thirds occupied, and Russian forces are gaining more areas mile-by-mile in their continuous pursuit. Moreover, Putin's narrative of a cultural and historic unification in the people of Ukraine and Russia resounds stronger with the people of the conflict zone than Zelensky's claim that entering NATO and EU is the sovereign right and need of Ukraine. Theoretically, wars end only when both sides perceive that peace is more beneficial for them than continuation of war. And war aims of both sides keep changing based on battlefield outcomes. The domestic political factors also matter; and on the Ukrainian side they are reflected by a war-torn battle zone, with millions of refugees and internally displaced, war deaths in hundreds of thousands, destruction of infrastructure and livelihoods and constant fear of attacks — all things pointing to the people's likely frustration and anger. The Russians on the other side have not lost any area, and their war gains have bolstered their national image and pride as a daunting military power that can stand against NATO and the US. So, while Putin's stature has risen from a strongman to a successful strategist, Zelensky's has dwarfed to that of an opportunist, seeking guarantees from the US and EU, because after billions of dollars of aid and military equipment already given, he has proven to be strategically unviable. Comparing today's Ukraine War with the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan, it is clear that they were won by indigenous freedom-fighting forces committed to the cause of their nation and land; whereas here the people's commitment seems missing, simply because they feel that they have been drawn into an unnecessary war (resulting in minimal trust in Zelensky as their leader) and that Russia is not an enemy. So, as the war outcomes continually favour Russia, it does not perceive any benefit in ending the war without having the deal it wants. And as the Alaska Summit approached, Trump must have known that Putin was not in the mood to surrender. Rather, he was likely to ask for a deal that ensures Ukraine's disconnection from NATO/EU membership; Russia's keeping of territories it has annexed; and exclusion of any Western guarantees that promise the presence of any Western militaries in Ukraine. Or, going a step further, Putin could also ask for Zelensky's removal and the reinstatement of a pro-Russia regime as was before 2014. Trump also knew that he was to defend a weak Zelensky, one who has already hinted that a settlement involving territorial concessions might be conceivable if backed by Western guarantees. Clearly, Zelensky is not depending upon the resolve of his people or of his fighters, but upon maneuvering the EU and US so as to extract maximum possible benefits and guarantees – one of which would be ensuring his staying in power. But to Zelensky's detriment, neither the EU nor the US is in a position to do him much good. Three days after Alaska, Zelensky was in the White House along with Ursula von der Leyen, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Keir Starmer. The room was decorated with a large map of Ukraine, with all Russian occupied territories painted in red — a clear message of what Zelensky will have to give away. All the guests were repeating one rhetoric — that a ceasefire is required before talks with Putin, and that security guarantees are a must for Ukraine. To that, Trump simply uttered that there would be no ceasefire and that the EU would have to fulfil the security guarantees. But the EU knows well that it cannot go on with the war or any guarantees without US backing. How can they guarantee anything in a war they have utterly lost even with US aid and leadership. Neither the EU nor any of its members has an appetite to fight a war on their own. The truth was that the US had dragged the EU into this war in the first place, as it was their ambition to extend NATO right up to Russian borders, and for that Victoria Nuland was tasked to select a US puppet like Zelensky, who would ask for NATO/EU membership the day he comes to power. So, losing the Ukraine battlefront is a combined defeat for the US, the EU — and rather of the whole West. It is a stamp on the decline of Western hegemony and relevance in global matters. The fact that Europe's strongest people — Ursula von der Leyen, Macron, Merz and Starmer — rushed to the White House and returned empty handed tells the whole story. For now, Putin has said that he is willing to take Luhansk and Donetsk and freeze fighting in the rest of the territories for a peace deal, but it is probable that once that is achieved, he will ask for more and more — until Zelensky is no more on the scene! Because the eventual goal for Russia will be to have a complete pro-Russian regime in Ukraine, one with no will to tilt towards the West. The bigger global shift to be feared here is a wider shift in Europe's security architecture, which was previously totally aligned and subservient to the US against a perceived enemy — Russia. Now that the US has backfooted from its commitment to Europe, the latter may reassess Russia as a security provider rather than an enemy — for security perhaps against the US!
Express Tribune
4 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donbas and abandon NATO bid, sources say
Firefighters work at the site of a residential area hit by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dobropillia, Donetsk region, Ukraine March 8, Reuters Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters. The Russian president met Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday for the first Russia-US summit in more than four years and spent almost all of their three-hour closed meeting discussing what a compromise on Ukraine might look like, according to the sources who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Speaking afterwards beside Trump, Putin said the meeting would hopefully open up the road to peace in Ukraine - but neither leader gave specifics about what they discussed. Read More: Russia seeks say in Ukraine peace deal In the most detailed Russian-based reporting to date on Putin's offer at the summit, Reuters was able to outline the contours of what the Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace deal to end a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people. In essence, the Russian sources said, Putin has compromised on territorial demands he laid out in June 2024, which required Kyiv to cede the entirety of the four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia: Dontesk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine - which make up the Donbas - plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. Kyiv rejected those terms as tantamount to surrender. In his new proposal, the Russian president has stuck to his demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from the parts of the Donbas it still controls, according to the three sources. In return, though, Moscow would halt the current front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, they added. Russia controls about 88% of the Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to US estimates and open-source data. Moscow is also willing to hand over the small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine it controls as part of a possible deal, the sources said. Putin is sticking, too, to his previous demands that Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and for a legally binding pledge from the US-led military alliance that it will not expand further eastwards, as well as for limits on the Ukrainian army and an agreement that no Western troops will be deployed on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, the sources said. The district her village is in - Huairou - and neighbouring Miyun district, just on the outskirts of Beijing, received a year's worth of rain in a single week. Yet the two sides remain far apart, more than three years after Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in a full-scale invasion that followed the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and prolonged fighting in the country's east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. Ukraine's foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the proposals. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and has said the industrial Donbas region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine. "If we're talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that," he told reporters in comments released by Kyiv on Thursday. "It is a matter of our country's survival, involving the strongest defensive lines." Joining NATO, meanwhile, is a strategic objective enshrined in the country's constitution and one which Kyiv sees as its most reliable security guarantee. Zelenskiy said it was not up to Russia to decide on the alliance's membership. The White House and NATO didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the Russian proposals. Political scientist Samuel Charap, chair in Russia and Eurasia Policy at RAND, a US-based global policy think-tank, said any requirement for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas remained a non-starter for Kyiv, both politically and strategically. "Openness to 'peace' on terms categorically unacceptable to the other side could be more of a performance for Trump than a sign of a true willingness to compromise," he added. "The only way to test that proposition is to begin a serious process at the working level to hash out those details." Trump: Putin wants to see it ended Russian forces currently control a fifth of Ukraine, an area about the size of the American state of Ohio, according to U.S. estimates and open-source maps. The three sources close to the Kremlin said the summit in the Alaskan city of Anchorage had ushered in the best chance for peace since the war began because there had been specific discussions about Russia's terms and Putin had shown a willingness to give ground. "Putin is ready for peace - for compromise. That is the message that was conveyed to Trump," one of the people said. The sources cautioned that it was unclear to Moscow whether Ukraine would be prepared to cede the remains of the Donbas, and that if it did not then the war would continue. Also unclear was whether or not the United States would give any recognition to Russian-held Ukrainian territory, they added. A fourth source said that though economic issues were secondary for Putin, he understood the economic vulnerability of Russia and the scale of the effort needed to go far further into Ukraine. Also Read: US Treasury official slams India for 'profiteering' off cheap Russian oil Trump has said he wants to end the "bloodbath" of the war and be remembered as a "peacemaker president". He said on Monday he had begun arranging, opens new tab a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, to be followed by a trilateral summit with the US president. "I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended," Trump said beside Zelenskiy in the Oval office. "I feel confident we are going to get it solved." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Putin was prepared to meet Zelenskiy but that all issues had to be worked through first and there was a question about Zelenskiy's authority to sign a peace deal. Putin has repeatedly raised doubts about Zelenskiy's legitimacy as his term in office was due to expire in May 2024 but the war means no new presidential election has yet been held. Kyiv says Zelenskiy remains the legitimate president. The leaders of Britain, France and Germany have said they are sceptical that Putin wants to end the war. Security guarantees for Ukraine Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff was instrumental in paving the way for the summit, and the latest drive for peace, according to two of the Russian sources. Witkoff met Putin in the Kremlin on August 6 with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. At the meeting, Putin conveyed clearly to Witkoff that he was ready to compromise and set out the contours of what he could accept for peace, according to two Russian sources. If Russia and Ukraine could reach an agreement, then there are various options for a formal deal - including a possible three-way Russia-Ukraine-U.S. deal that is recognised by the UN Security Council, one of the sources said. Another option is to go back to the failed 2022 Istanbul agreements, where Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine's permanent neutrality in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, the sources added. "There are two choices: war or peace, and if there is no peace, then there is more war," one of the people said.
Business Recorder
11 hours ago
- Business Recorder
India, Russia agree to boost trade ties after foreign ministers meet in Moscow
MOSCOW: India and Russia agreed to boost trade ties on Thursday as their foreign ministers met in Moscow, giving little indication that U.S. President Donald Trump's hefty tariffs on India for buying Russian oil would disrupt their relations. Indian goods face additional U.S. tariffs of up to 50%, among the highest imposed by Washington, due to New Delhi's increased purchases of Russian oil. Western countries boycotting Russian crude say India's purchases are helping to fund Moscow's war in Ukraine. But NewDelhi says its purchases are purely commercial transactions, and accuses the U.S. and European Union of double standards, noting that they continue significant trade with Moscow themselves. 'We have good results in cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector, in the supply of Russian oil to the Indian market. And we have a mutual interest in implementing joint projects for the extraction of energy resources, including in the Russian Federation - in the Far East and on the Arctic shelf,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a joint news conference with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Jaishankar said that relations between the two countries had been among the steadiest of major nations in the world since World War Two, referring to a close friendship going back to the days of the Soviet Union. Russia has 'special mechanisms' to supply oil to India, embassy official says The two countries reaffirmed their ambition to expand bilateral trade, including by increasing India's exports to Russia, Jaishankar said, according to a statement from India's foreign ministry. 'This (trade expansion) requires swiftly addressing non-tariff barriers and regulatory impediments,' Jaishankar said. 'Enhancing Indian exports to Russia in sectors like pharmaceuticals, agriculture and textiles will certainly help to correct the current imbalance.' Russia was able to divert its exports of oil, a significant source of state revenue, away from Europe and mainly to China and India after the West imposed sanctions on Moscow over its conflict in Ukraine. India and China are the biggest buyers of Russia's oil. Russian embassy officials in New Delhi said on Wednesday that Russia expected to continue supplying oil to India despitepressure from the United States, adding that Moscow hoped trilateral talks with India and China would soon take place.
