Russia names Steven Seagal as a goodwill ambassador to the US
by Joel Gehrke
| August 04, 2018 03:38 PM
American actor Steven Seagal has a new role to play: goodwill ambassador to the United States, deputized for the task by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"Steven Seagal was appointed as the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special representative for Russian-US humanitarian ties," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s team said in a bulletin carried Saturday by state-run media. "As for international practice, you can draw a parallel with the functions of United Nations Goodwill Ambassadors.â€
Seagal was born in Michigan, but received Russian citizenship and a passport directly from President Vladimir Putin in 2016. The pair reportedly were introduced to each other by a Hollywood producer who ferries actors from the U.S. to Russia, where the 1990s action star remains popular, and their relationship benefited from Seagal’s opposition to former President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, particularly what he regarded as the “idiotic†response to the Ukraine crisis in 2014.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/russia-names-steven-seagal-as-a-goodwill-ambassador-to-the-us