Jesse Ventura On His RT America Show Being Pulled in Russia Due to Ukrainian Invasion

Jesse Ventura had a show on Russian television network RT America before the invasion of Ukraine began, and he recently talked about the show being pulled off the air. The wrestling legend and former Minnesota governor appeared on Talk is Jericho and talked about how The World According to Jesse ended due to sanctions placed on Russia regarding the invasion, plus more. You can check out some highlights below, per Wrestling Inc:

On if the show was pulled due to the invasion of Ukraine: “Totally, and it was actually our sanctions that took me off the air, not Russia’s. First of all, DirectTV and all the providers took us off, so we weren’t gonna be on the air. Second, the banks shut them out, so we couldn’t transfer money, because Russian money was no good in the bank. So the sanctions they put on destroyed RT America.”

On taking a stance against the invasion: “My last show, five minutes in, I stopped the show and I said, ‘I do not support this invasion, I want to state right now, I’m totally against it and I’m demanding the bloodshed stop now and the war end immediately. Now wouldn’t that have been a good message to get to the Russian people? And yet, my message couldn’t get there because our sanctions took me off the air. Kind of weird that our sanctions actually stopped me from chastising Russia from invading Ukraine.”

On meeting Putin before signing with RT America in 2017: “I’ll admit this, I met Vladimir Putin before I signed. They flew me and my wife to Russia for the 10-year anniversary of RT. Putin was the keynote speaker. I met [Mikhail] Gorbachev that night too. The Putin I met that night I’m having a hard time identifying today, because the Putin I met that night walked across the room to me, I didn’t go to him.

“He came to me, held his hand out, said ‘Thank you, Governor.’ Called me by my title. And he said, ‘I want to assure you, you have total creative control and there will never be any interference in your show.’ And I said, ‘Thank you, Mr. President.’ And Chris, I have to tell the truth. For four years, they never interfered in my show at all. He was a man of his word, so I can only judge him by my relationship with him, and I’m trying to figure out who this guy is today. What in the hell happened to him, because I got the feeling when I met him, he truly wanted to be our friend. That was the vibes I got from him, and you know me Chris, I’m not too far off with my vibes, but this guy, whoever Putin is now, either he worked me like hell, and working a wrestler is tough to do.”