埼玉英語会 英検１級・準１級　コミュのSchwarzenegger's anti-war video trends on Russian social media

A video address by Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Russian people
was trending on Russian Twitter on Friday and has sparked reaction.

In it, Schwarzenegger warns Russians they are being fed misinformation about
their country's assault on Ukraine.

Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, he says: "You started this war,
and you can stop it".

In the nine-minute video, which also shows footage of the destruction in Ukraine,
the actor-turned-politician calls on people to see through disinformation and
propaganda.



"I'm speaking to you today because there are things going on in the world that are being kept from you, terrible things that you should know about," he says.

"Ukraine did not start this war, neither did nationalists or Nazis," the former
California governor says, noting that the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky,
is Jewish. "This is not the Russian people's war."

The Austrian-born former bodybuilding champion - whose film Red Heat was
the first US film shot in Moscow's Red Square - speaks of his affection for
the Russian people and talks about being inspired as a youth by Russian Olympic
weightlifter Yuri Vlasov.

He also talks about his father, who was among Nazi German troops who attacked
St Petersburg - then called Leningrad - during World War Two. He returned
a "broken man" full of pain from a wound he sustained during fighting and
the guilt he felt at having taken part.

"The strength and the heart of the Russian people have always inspired me,
" he says. "That is why I hope that you will let me tell you the truth about
the war in Ukraine."

He goes on to say: "This is an illegal war. Your lives, your limbs, your futures
have been sacrificed for a senseless war condemned by the entire world."