While Donald Trump has gone from praising Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to awkwardly backpedaling, another former host of The Apprentice has been handling the issue much better. Last week, Arnold Schwarzenegger released a moving video, in which he pled with the Russian populace to see through their leaders’ lies about why they’ve attacked a neighboring nation. And Russian state TV is not happy about it.
As per The Daily Beast, a bevy of Russian personalities have come out in force against the actor and former governor, who’s quite beloved in the country, in part because he played a KGB agent in 1988’s Red Heat. (Also because he wipes out an entire army singlehandedly at the end of Commando.) One of them was Vadim Gigin, who railed against the actor on the state TV show Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovievon.
“That face is the cover page of American imperialism and colonialism,” Gigin roared over the video. “Not the caricature image of Uncle Sam, but this Schwarz, in a Hollywood production.” He added, “He, in California, will tell us, who live here… the truth?! That is their approach towards us.”
Gigin took particular umbrage with the second half of Schwarzenegger’s video, in which he discussed the cup given to him by champion weightlifter Yury Vlasov. That set Gigin off. “Vlasov couldn’t transfer any of his brain [to Schwarzenegger] with his handshake and the gifted cup,” he steamed.
Then host Solovievon chimed in. “Schwarzenegger twice traveled to Iraq to support the American troops and never tried to tell the Iraqi people why they’re being destroyed,” he asserted.
Russian powerlifter champion Maryana Naumova also trashed Schwarzenegger in a column published by Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda. While struggling to claim Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can be a Nazi even if he’s Jewish, she also dove into the actor’s filmography.
“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 asked the actor. “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 neighbors, not only for us… Don’t side with Skynet, Terminator.”
Writer Zakhar Prilepin also tried to use Schwarzenegger’s movies to hang him. “In his video message, 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,” Prilepin wrote on Telegram. “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.”
Neither Putin himself nor his cronies in power have yet to comment on Schwarzenegger’s video, which he posted not only on Twitter but also on Telegram, which is used almost exclusively by Russians. But Russian powers and propagandists ought to have seen enough of his films to know what happens when you cross him, even if you’re Sinbad.
(Via The Daily Beast)