Featured Image Credit: @Schwarzenegger/Twitter/Alamy
Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ukraine, Russia
Anish Vij
Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ukraine, Russia
Russian state media has slammed Arnold Schwarzenegger's powerful video message where he speaks out against Russia's invasion in Ukraine.
The Terminator actor uploaded a nine-minute video on his Twitter page on Thursday, 17 March, where he said the 'strength and the heart of the Russian people' were always valued by him, so he took it upon himself to 'educate' the Russian people on what's happening.
The Kremlin has blocked external news, media and internet from the country.
The actor also took aim at Vladimir Putin, adding: "To President Putin, I say, you started this war. You are leading this war. You can stop this war."
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However, according to The Daily Beast, Russian state media was forced to address the video after it went viral on Telegram.
“That face is the cover page of American imperialism and colonialism,” commentator Vadim Gigin said on the state TV show Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovievon, the publication reported.
“Not the caricature image of Uncle Sam, but this Schwarz, in a Hollywood production. He, in California, will tell us, who live here … the truth?! That is their approach towards us.”
Host Vladimir Soloviev then added: “Schwarzenegger twice travelled to Iraq to support the American troops and never tried to tell the Iraqi people why they’re being destroyed.”
Russian powerlifter Maryana Naumova was quoted by the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid accusing Schwarzenegger of 'living in an alternative, imaginary reality'.
“Do you remember how in the second part of the Terminator your hero goes back in time to prevent the creation of Skynet, which would bring the death of all mankind?” she said.
“Russia’s special military operation does not aim to destroy the Ukrainian people.
"It is aimed at the neo-Nazi Skynet, which over the years has completely subjugated Ukraine and was about to turn into an uncontrollable monster, dangerous for all of its neighbours, not only for us.
"Don’t side with Skynet, Terminator."
Russian author Zakhar Prilepin also wrote on his Telegram channel: "Schwarzenegger, who killed three million Russians in his films, told the Russian people how much he loves us and how wrong we are about Ukraine.
"This Austrian, the son of his father, who served in the SS and was wounded near Leningrad, is trying to act as the good cop," he said.
He added that the US was 'pumping Ukraine full of weapons to massacre the Russians'.
"Arnie, you are a predator and an enemy," he wrote.
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