When Arnold Schwarzenegger was a teenager, a friend invited him to the World Weightlifting Championships where he watched in awe as a Russian named Yuri Vlasov hoisted 200 kilograms over his head and took the title, the Terminator turned politician said in a video released on Thursday.
There was a 14-year-old-boy standing in front of the strongest man in the world,” Schwarzenegger said, explaining how he met Vlasov backstage and the encounter inspired him to start lifting weights. Decades later, Schwarzenegger met Vlasov again and the older strongman gave the younger strongman a coffee cup as a token of friendship.
In the video, Schwarzenegger reached across his desk and produced the cup, kept after all these years. “The strength and heart of the Russian people have always inspired me,” he solemnly told the camera. “And that is why I hope you will let me tell you the truth.
When a celebrity opens their mouth to comment on world events, it’s deeply embarrassing, at least half the time. Such messages tend to come across as either tone-deaf or self-aggrandizing (recall the battalion of actors who serenaded us with the pandemic-inspired version of “Imagine” nobody wanted).
There’s a little of this in Schwarzenegger’s video. Why would ordinary Russian people listen to the former Governator when there have been news stories of them refusing to believe even their own relatives in Ukraine about what’s really happening during the invasion? But over the course of nine minutes, Schwarzenegger – who built his career on muscles before he entered politics – makes the case that he is, somehow, the right man for this job.
He talks about the siege of Leningrad in World War II. How his own father fought in that battle, but for the wrong side – against Russia, as part of the Nazi army. He explains that Ukraine is not riddled with Nazis as the Kremlin has told Russian citizens – Ukraine’s president is Jewish. His words are intercut with news footage from recent weeks: buildings destroyed, people killed.
I love the Russian people. That is why I have to tell you the truth. Please watch and share. pic.twitter.com/6gyVRhgpFV
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 17, 2022
Source: IOL
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