The video shot by the famous Hollywood star and Republican politician Arnold Schwarzenegger in the USA, addressing the Russian people, received serious interaction from Twitter users in Russia and was watched tens of millions of times.
In his clip, Arnold Schwarzenegger warns the Russians that they are constantly being falsely informed about the invasion of Ukraine.
“YOU CAN STOP THE WAR”
Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, the famous actor says, “You started this war, you can stop it.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s nine-minute clip also includes footage from the destruction in Ukraine.
Schwarzenegger urges people to see what lies behind the disinformation and propaganda, he says.
Saying, “Ukraine did not start this war, neither did the Nationalists or the Nazis”, Schwarzenegger also reminds that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenkiy is Jewish and uses the words “This war is not the war of the Russian people”.
“My FATHER WAS A NAZI MILITARY ATTACKING ST PETERBURG”
Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born former bodybuilding champion and actor of Red Heat, the first American movie shot on Moscow’s Red Square, talks about his love for the Russian people in his clip, and tells how he was inspired by Russian bodybuilding champion Yuri Vlasov in his youth.
“My FATHER RETURNED AS A ‘DAMAGED MAN'”
St. Petersburg, whose name was then Leningrad, during the Second World War. Stating that he was one of the Nazi Germany soldiers who attacked St. Petersburg, Schwarzenegger says that his father came back from this war as a “devastated man” with both the wound he received and the guilt he felt.
“The strength and heart of the Russian people have always inspired me,” says Schwarzenegger. “That’s why I hope you’ll let me tell you the truth about Ukraine.”
“This is an illegal war. Your lives, your bodies, your future are being sacrificed to this senseless war that is condemned by the whole world.”
LIKED IN RUSSIA
The clip was appreciated by the Russians who opposed the occupation of Ukraine.
Writing on the Telegram app, opposition politician Lev Shlosberg said the video was shot “with a tone respectful to the people of Russia”.
Shlosberg wrote, “Arnold Schwarenegger has a special talent for speaking persuasively, respectfully and on an equal footing to anyone. Intelligence, power, and justice. Listen. Think about it. Understand.”
“THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE DID NOT TREAT WILD ORCs”
Also writing on Telegram, liberal journalist Anton Orekh said that the message of the famous actor did not include Russophobia.
“We are the world’s excommunications,” said Anton Orekh. Arnold is one of the few to address the Russians as good people who have gone astray, without treating them as wild orcs.
In response, “Barack Obmana”, a pro-Kremlin parody account on Twitter, mocked the video as “ideas of mercenary US pundits” and wrote that the Russians did not consider such ideas.
“KREMLIN IS LYING”
Russia has from the beginning described the invasion of Ukraine as a “special operation” aimed at protecting Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine.
But Schwarzenegger says in his video that the Kremlin lied to the Russians that it was attempting to invade Ukraine to de-Nazis. He emphasizes that this war is not started by Ukraine, but by those in power in the Kremlin.
On Friday, around 17.30 Turkey time, the video was watched approximately 26 million times, liked 1 million times and received 337 thousand retweets.
Schwarzenegger is one of the few accounts on Twitter followed by the official Russian-English Twitter accounts of the Russian government. (BBC Turkish)