American-born actor Steven Seagal opened an aikido centre aimed at helping train young people for service in the armed forces in Moscow ©Russian Aikido Federation

Hollywood actor Steven Seagal was present at the inauguration of an All-Russian Aikido Centre in Moscow, with one of its objectives being to prepare young people for the service in the Russian armed forces.

Seagal was awarded Russian citizenship in 2016, and appointed as Russia's special envoy to his native United States in 2018.

A seventh-dan black belt in the aikido martial art discipline, Seagal has been the head instructor of the Russian Aikido Federation since 2018, and cut the ribbon to open the Centre in the country's capital.

According to Russia's official state news agency TASS, the Centre aims to develop participants' styles and directions of traditional and modern aikido, increase their motivation, offer opportunities to receive a sports title and prepare young people for service in the armed forces.

A sports and patriotic club is expected to start operating at the Centre to increase physical fitness for service in the armed forces.

Russia is staging a widely-condemned war in Ukraine, which has led to its President Vladimir Putin being issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.

It has led athletes from Russia and Belarus largely being excluded from international sport, although the International Olympic Committee is controversially exploring a pathway for their return.

Steven Seagal, right, was awarded Russian citizenship in 2016 and recently granted the Order of Friendship by President Vladimir Putin, left ©Getty Images
Steven Seagal, right, was awarded Russian citizenship in 2016 and recently granted the Order of Friendship by President Vladimir Putin, left ©Getty Images

Seagal claimed at the opening of the Centre that the discipline of aikido could make this world a better place".

"The young athletes that I saw today have a very great potential," the 70-year-old was quoted by TASS.

"We need to open more such centres in order to develop it.

"It is important that the development of aikido proceed at a faster pace."

Putin recently awarded Seagal the Order of Friendship, and the actor has described himself as "one million per cent Russian".

Seagal was prohibited from entering Ukraine in 2017, but last year visited the Russian-held town of Olenivka and its prison camp holding Ukrainian detainees.