(CNN) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to honor American actor Steven Seagal with the State Order of Friendship.
The decree cites what it calls Seagal’s “great contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation.”
Seagal has been a frequent visitor to Russia and became a citizen of the country in 2016, when he personally received a Russian passport from Vladimir Putin. He has also worked as a “special representative” of the Russian Foreign Ministry in the United States and Japan.
The former action hero backed Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and has supported its invasion of Ukraine. He visited the occupied area of Donbas last summer.
In an interview on Russian television last year he spoke of an existential threat to Russia from Ukraine.
