For the same reason Gérard Depardieu did — because one day you wake up and you’re no longer the handsome, charming, successful movie star you once were. Old age has morphed you into a sorry excuse of a human being, bloated, greedy. Your country’s taxes are too high, you think, your career dwindling, and you have a tendency of not keeping your hands to yourself when it comes to the ladies, regardless of consent.
So you do what any sane man would do… rather than face the music, you bounce. You skip town, and you go to some dictatorship where you won’t have to pay a dime you don’t want and can get a handy citizenship and more or less gain immunity from prosecution… all you need to do, at this point, is appear in a few pro-Russian propaganda films and you’ll be set for life.
So now you got your fat sausage fingers on that coveted Russian passport, you’re untouchable… It didn’t take much, really. All you needed to do was cozy up to some sleazy people, like Vladimir Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov. You’re pictured with them. You embrace the Russian president in a warm, crushing bear hug and you fill your heart with joy and happiness because you’re free. Free from pesky Western constraints like “the rule of law” or any laws in general, for that matter.
Steven Seagal did what several other Western stars have done before and after him. He went to a place that conveniently forgives all your sins, and lets you atone for them by being seen with shady people, hoping that by associating with movie stars past their prime they will be seen as somehow better, more respectable. It’s a preposterous notion, of course, but it doesn’t stop controversial men well past their expiration dates from traveling East in search of dictatorial redemption.
Why do these men get Russian citizenship? Convenience. They do what they need to do to survive. Rats sometimes leave a sinking ship. Other times, the ship’s just fine and the rats are forced out, finding refuge in another ship that is sinking.