Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to honour the American actor Steven Seagal with the state Order of Friendship.

The decree cited what it called Seagal's "great contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation."

Seagal has been a regular visitor to Russia and became a citizen of the country in 2016, when he received a Russian passport from Vladimir Putin personally. He has also worked as the Russian Foreign Ministry's "special representative" to 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 Donbas area last summer.

In an interview on Russian television last year he spoke of an existential threat to Russia from Ukraine.

- Uliana Pavlova, CNN