On September 26, the Russian government international outlet, RT.com, reported on Steven Seagal’s visit to the Russia’s Far Eastern region of Primorsky Krai, where the results of gubernatorial elections were annulled last week due to numerous voting violation complaints. The next round of elections in Primorsky Krai is scheduled for December.
Seagal was granted Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin in 2016, and later appointed Russia’s special representative for relations with the United States and Japan. According to RT.com, Seagal told reporters that his ancestors came from Russia’s Far East. He also said he would take the Primorsky Krai governor’s seat “with pleasure” to “represent Vladimir Putin’s interests” in the region.
Seagal’s understanding of the Primorsky Krai governor’s duties is wrong – in fact, it is the opposite of what the region’s constitution says.
Article 36, Paragraph 1 of the Primorsky Krai constitution states that the “Governor of Primorsky Krai as the highest executive … represents Primorsky Krai in relations with the federal authorities and the authorities of the other regions of the Russian Federation.”
This past July, Polygraph.info fact-checked Steven Seagal’s statement praising Vladimir Putin’s role as a global leader who is trying to create “a more stable, logical and predictable” world.