SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Russian state TV broadcasters blasted actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday over his video appeal to the country's citizens amid the invasion of Ukraine, labeling the 74-year-old "the cover page of American imperialism and colonialism."
During Russia-1's broadcast of "Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov" on Sunday, host Solovyov and commentator Vadim Gigin criticized Schwarzenegger, who said last week in a video posted on Twitter, Telegram, and other platforms last week that the Ukraine invasion "is not the Russian people's war" and that people "in power in the Kremlin started this war."
"Schwarzenegger twice traveled to Iraq to support the American troops and never tried to tell the Iraqi people why they’re being destroyed," Solovyov said on the state-run channel, according to a translation from The Daily Beast.
Schwarzenegger visited Iraq in 2003 as an actor while promoting a film and in 2009 as California's governor. In 2007, he vetoed a bill that would've allowed Californians to vote on whether they supported immediately withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.
In his video last week, Schwarzenegger recalled meeting world champion weightlifter Yuri Petrovich Vlasov in 1961, calling the Soviet icon his "hero." Schwarzenegger said his Austrian father chided him for idolizing Vlasov, telling him "to find a German or Austrian hero."
"I don't want you to be broken like my father," Schwarzenegger said, addressing Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine who "have seen (the truth) with (their) own eyes."
Gigin said "Vlasov couldn't transfer any of his brain" to Schwarzenegger when they met.
"That face is the cover page of American imperialism and colonialism," Gigin said. "Not the caricature image of Uncle Sam, but this Schwarz, in a Hollywood production."
Russia has blocked access to Western media and independent outlets within the country, leaving state-run media as the only source of news for most of its citizens. Earlier this month, President Vladimir Putin signed a bill mandating 15-year prison sentences for people who spread information deviating from Russia's narrative about the Ukraine nvasion.
The Moscow Times reported on March 11 that Solovyov, whom the European Union and Canada has sanctioned, interrupted two guests on his program who openly criticized the invasion.
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