Hollywood actor and director Sean Penn recalls how he first met Kremlin dictator Putin. In particular, this happened back in 2001.. Then Sean Penn, along with another Hollywood actor Jack Nicholson, came to the Moscow Film Festival to present his film " After the premiere of the film, Hollywood stars were taken to a meeting with Putin, which took place at the dacha of an ardent Putinist, director Nikita Mikhalkov.

As Sean Penn recalls in an interview with the Independent, they were taken to a meeting by an escort.. Cars drove at such a speed that the actor was worried about safety. When they came across farmers with horse-drawn carts, the guards leaned out of the car window and beat them so that they would not interfere. " We knew that Putin would be the guest of honor. We boarded this convoy. And we drove as fast as they wanted, not caring at all that it could be dangerous in the villages through which we passed.. When farmers with horse-drawn carts tried to pass, the security people in our cars leaned out of the windows to beat them off with batons.. It was so aggressive,"

Penn says that trip made him sick. The actor also admitted that the meeting with Putin was also unpleasant, because even then he had a bad feeling. Recall that from the first days of a full-scale war, Sean Penn has been helping Ukraine. In particular, he recently presented a documentary film about the Russian-Ukrainian war. The actor also met with President Vladimir Zelensky on several occasions.. The celebrity does not hide that he is fond of the commander-in-chief of Ukraine and considers their meeting one of the most important in his life.