Action Hero Steven Seagal to Fight Terrorism Offscreen; Leads Congressional Delegation to Russia

Hollywood action movie star Steven Seagal is putting his tough screen persona to work to fight terrorism. The actor and martial artist helped set up congressional visit to Chechnya this week. He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in March. Last week Steven Seagal paid a visit to Ramzan Kadyrov, who runs Chechnya.

Steven Seagal arrived in Beslan on June 1, which is celebrated in Russia as International Children's Day, along with a group of U.S. Congressmen. Seagal visited a school in Russia’s North Ossetia that had been ruined during a bloody hostage crisis in 2004. The six-member congressional delegation also visited the memorial cemetery in the town, where 330 terror attack victims, more than half of them children, are buried.

On Sept. 1, 2004, a group of militants seized School No. 1 in Beslan in an operation organized by the late Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. The rebels killed 17 adults in the first hours of the siege and then set up explosive devices around the school. The militants demanded that Russian troops pull out of the Chechen republic. Federal troops seized the school three days later, ending the siege. Hundreds of people were killed as militants and troops exchanged fire. Russian authorities were criticized for how they handled siege and for the events leading up to it. All of the terrorists but one were killed.

A spokesman for the Chechnyan republic government said, "They were shocked. After visiting the cemetery, which has more than 300 similar tombs, most of them with the photos of small children, Steven Seagal said he will spend the rest of his life fighting against terrorism."

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican who led delegation, said talks with Russian parliament members and security officials were productive, but found “nothing specific” that could have helped prevent the Boston Marathon bombings. Rohrabacher said the two countries need to work more closely on joint security threats. He said, “Radical Islam is at our throat in the United States, and is at the throat of the Russian people.”

Rep. Steve King said Russian security officials believed that Tsarnaev, one of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, and his mother had already been radicalized before moving to the U.St. in 2003. King said, “I suspect he was raised to do what he did.”