90210 star AnnaLynne McCord recites bizarre poem to Putin amid Ukraine invasion

Paul Archuleta/WireImage AnnaLynne McCord

In the midst of Russian military forces invading Ukraine and igniting fears of a major war, former 90210 actress AnnaLynne McCord tweeted a strange spoken-word video Thursday addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the now-viral video, McCord imagines herself as Putin's mother and muses on the "soul-stealing pain" he must have endured as a child that led him to believe that he "lived in a cruel, unjust world."

"If I was your mother, you would have been so loved, held in the arms of joyous light," McCord says. "Never would this story's plight, the world unfurled before our eyes, a pure demise of nation sitting peaceful under a night sky."

She continues: "If I was your mother, the world would have been warm. So much laughter and joy, and nothing would harm. I can't imagine the stain, the soul-stealing pain that the little boy you must have seen and believed and the formulation of thought quickly taught that you lived in a cruel, unjust world."

McCord's video was met with swift backlash on Twitter, with observers calling it tone-deaf and comparing it to Gal Gadot's ill-received "Imagine" video during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. One person tweeted, "This is like 200 times worse than that Gal Gadot Imagine thing," while another added, "Did y'all learn NOTHING from Gal Gadot's 'Imagine' disaster?!?!?"

Representatives for McCord did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

McCord's video came as several stars of Russian and Ukrainian descent spoke out against the escalating military crisis in the European country. Putin deployed troops overnight to two regions in eastern Ukraine over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's eastward expansion, accelerating fears of widespread conflict. Regina Spektor, Vera Farmiga, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, and more condemned the invasion.

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