Muscles from Brussels Jean-Claude Van Damme sends ‘big kiss’ to Putin with ambassadorial job request | World News

Jean-Claude Van Damme has told Vladimir Putin he wants to come to Russia as an “ambassador of peace”.

In a bizarre video posted on Telegram by a pro-Russian journalist from Ukraine, the Hollywood action hero, 64, said he would be “honoured” to take on such a role.

Addressing the Kremlin leader directly, he said: “We want to come to Russia. We’ll try to do this the way you want to do this – to be an ambassador of peace.”

It would not be the first time the man nicknamed “The Muscles from Brussels” has visited Russia.

In 2010, he enjoyed ringside seats alongside Putin at a mixed martial arts event in Sochi.

The Belgian-born former bodybuilder shares a love of fighting with the Russian president, who is himself a judo black belt, and they are said to have known each other for years.

Tiptoeing around the topic of Russia’s war in Ukraine and its ongoing stand-off with the West, Van Damme promised to talk “only about peace, sport and happiness” and not politics, before signing off the video with a “big kiss for Putin”.

Most celebrities have turned their back on Vladimir Putin since he launched his invasion in February 2022 but a handful continue to defend him. Of those, American actor Steven Seagal is the most high profile.

The Under Siege star, who holds a Russian passport and is a frequent visitor to the country, acts as Moscow’s special representative for Russian-US humanitarian ties.

But when we caught up with him at Putin’s latest presidential inauguration last year, he refused to say why he supports the Kremlin leader…