The Russian state media came to some interesting conclusions about Morgan Freeman earlier this week after the Oscar-winning actor announced an initiative to educate the general public about U.S. election interference.
In a YouTube video released on Monday (September 18), Freeman tells viewers about the Committee to Investigate Russia, a non-profit organization that intends to ‘help Americans recognize and understand the gravity of Russia’s continuing attacks on our democracy.’
Hollywood director, actor, and activist Rob Reiner is on the organization’s advisory board.
In the two-minute video, Freeman lays out a movie script featuring a former KGB spy as the main character, who ‘plots a course for revenge’ against the United States by working his way up the political ranks and eventually becoming president.
‘He secretly uses cyber warfare to attack democracies around the world,’ Freeman says. ‘Using social media to spread propoganda and false information, he convinces people in democratic societies to distrust their media, their political processes, even their neighbours.’
But viewers soon find out that the script is no movie—it’s real life—and Vladimir Putin is the main character.
Freeman proceeds to call on President Donald Trump to announce a federal investigation into the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
It didn’t take long for Russian state media to respond to Freeman’s call to action.
Captioning the show, ‘Hysterical Freeman’, state-run network Rossiya 24 hosted a panel of psychiatrists who were invited to assess the actor’s state based on the video.
One psychiatrist accused Freeman of developing a ‘messianic complex’ after playing the role of God on more than one occasion, while the show’s anchor said his ‘marijuana use’ and ‘excessive workload’ were to blame.
For years, Freeman has been open about his use of cannabis, and is a supporter of federal legalization in the United States. The actor suffers from fibromyalgia pain and told the Daily Beast in 2015 that it was the only thing that offered him relief.
In March 2016, he told Larry King that the U.S. government couldn’t ‘continue to say that it’s a dangerous drug when it’s safer than alcohol.’
In Russia, cannabis is decriminalized in small quantities (under six grams per person), but possession is illegal and can be punished by fines and jail time, depending on the amount in possession.
