--- title: Steven Seagal Gifted Carrot by President Belarus Lukashenko description: Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko welcomed Steven Seagal the former action-star to his Minsk home on Thursday with a carrot canonical: https://time.com/4468168/steven-seagal-carrot-watermelon-minsk-belarus-president/ author: Tara John article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-26T13:27:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:54.274Z og:title: Steven Seagal Gifted Carrot by President Belarus Lukashenko og:description: Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko welcomed Steven Seagal the former action-star to his Minsk home on Thursday with a carrot og:url: https://time.com/4468168/steven-seagal-carrot-watermelon-minsk-belarus-president/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76787b6fa021657d/6988a3cb0a4a2275409cb0b5/stephen-seagal-belarus-carrot-watermelon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. actor Steven Seagal holds two water melons during his meeting with the Belarus President at his residence on August 24, 2016. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Steven Seagal Gifted Carrot by President Belarus Lukashenko twitter:description: Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko welcomed Steven Seagal the former action-star to his Minsk home on Thursday with a carrot twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76787b6fa021657d/6988a3cb0a4a2275409cb0b5/stephen-seagal-belarus-carrot-watermelon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Steven Seagal Given Carrot and Two Watermelons by President of Belarus by [Tara John](/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Aug 26, 2016 1:27 PM CUT  U.S. actor Steven Seagal holds two water melons during his meeting with the Belarus President at his residence on August 24, 2016. U.S. actor Steven Seagal holds two water melons during his meeting with the Belarus President at his residence on August 24, 2016.AFP—Getty Images by [Tara John](/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Aug 26, 2016 1:27 PM CUT Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko [welcomed Steven Seagal with a carrot](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/08/25/action-hero-steven-seagal-at-home-with-europes-last-dictator/ "undefined") and two watermelons on Thursday during the former action-star’s visit to the strongman’s Minsk residence. “Eat to your health, it’s very good for you,” said Lukashenko, before Seagal heartily chomped into the freshly peeled carrot. This is Seagal’s first visit to see Lukashenko, a person he has “long dreamed of meeting,” Belarusan presidential spokeswoman [told the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/08/25/action-hero-steven-seagal-at-home-with-europes-last-dictator/ "undefined"). Seagal, who has family links to Belarus and Russia, has visited leaders from former Soviet states in the past, including Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin— whom Seagal endorsed following Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. Lukashenko won his fifth term as President last October, having ruled the country since 1994. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4468168/steven-seagal-carrot-watermelon-minsk-belarus-president/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4468168/steven-seagal-carrot-watermelon-minsk-belarus-president/"},"headline":"Steven Seagal Given Carrot and Two Watermelons by President of Belarus","datePublished":"2016-08-26T13:27:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:54.274Z","description":"Where diplomacy meets prop comedy","url":"https://time.com/4468168/steven-seagal-carrot-watermelon-minsk-belarus-president/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76787b6fa021657d/6988a3cb0a4a2275409cb0b5/stephen-seagal-belarus-carrot-watermelon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76787b6fa021657d/6988a3cb0a4a2275409cb0b5/stephen-seagal-belarus-carrot-watermelon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. actor Steven Seagal holds two water melons during his meeting with the Belarus President at his residence on August 24, 2016.","caption":"U.S. actor Steven Seagal holds two water melons during his meeting with the Belarus President at his residence on August 24, 2016.","creditText":"AFP—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4468168/steven-seagal-carrot-watermelon-minsk-belarus-president/","name":"Steven Seagal Given Carrot and Two Watermelons by President of Belarus"}}]}] ```