Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday awarded Steven Seagal, the U.S.

action star turned singing Kremlin advocate, the Order of Friendship medal, an award given to those working to improve Russias international relations.

Seagal, 70, was given Russian citizenship in 2016 and has actually been functioning as an unique envoy of the Russian Foreign Ministry for humanitarian relations with the U.S.

and Japan since 2018.

Seagal was awarded the medal in recognition of his tremendous contribution to the advancement of global cultural and humanitarian cooperation, according to the decree published on the federal government website.The Hollywood actor has been a singing advocate of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is currently dealing with a documentary about the war in Ukraine, according to sources near to the Kremlin.

Seagal made an extremely advertised check out to eastern Ukraine in August in 2015 as part of his deal with the documentary.

While his go to was commonly praised by pro-Kremlin pundits, other observers were horrified, with numerous explaining that Seagals visit had actually consisted of a stop at the Olenivka jail, where a minimum of 50 Ukrainian detainees of war are thought to have actually been killed.