Gerard Depardieu's latest drama: a Russian passport

Russian President Vladimir Putin has given a Russian passport to the famous French movie star in what some see as part of an escalating war of words between Russia and the West.

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / January 3, 2013

In this December 2010 file photo, then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (r.) and French actor Gerard Depardieu (l.) attend the Russian Museum, in St. Petersburg. Depardieu, the French actor who has been sparring with his native country over taxes, has been granted Russian citizenship. A brief announcement on the Kremlin website said President Putin signed the citizenship grant on Thursday, Jan. 3.

Alexei Nikolsky/RIA Novosti/AP/File

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Vladimir Putin flourished his pen Thursday morning and signed what must be the oddest decree of his long years in power: an order granting a Russian passport to French actor and tax exile Gerard Depardieu.

Skip to next paragraph Fred Weir

Correspondent

Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?

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A terse announcement posted on the Kremlin website?noted that Mr. Putin acted "to satisfy an application for citizenship of the Russian Federation by Gerard Xavier Depardieu, who was born in 1948 in France."

Mr. Depardieu, star of over 170 films and possessing what is often politely referred to as a "colorful" public personality, has been locked in a high profile battle with France's new socialist government over an emergency tax that would levy a 75 percent rate on people earning more than $1.3 million. He recently renounced his French citizenship and took up residence in Belgium, which offers a friendlier tax regime for the super-rich.

France's high court struck down the law last week as "unconstitutional," but the government announced it will soon reintroduce the measure after taking the court's concerns into account.

It's not clear whether Depardieu actually applied for residence in Russia, which has a 13 percent flat income tax for all, but in a far-ranging press conference?last month Putin declared "If G?rard really wants to have a residence permit or a Russian passport, you can consider it done, the issue solved positively."

Putin also said that he has long enjoyed "kind, friendly, personal relations" with the French actor.

Come to Chechnya

Depardieu is no stranger to Russia. He has appeared in several ad campaigns and filmed the 2011 movie Rasputin in St. Petersburg. He is also rumored to be close to Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, and was guest of honor at the pro-Kremlin leader's birthday party in Grozny last October.

Mr. Kadyrov has said that he would happily invite Depardieu to come and live permanently in Chechnya if he wanted to. "If the country's leadership decides in favor of granting Depardieu Russian citizenship, we will be glad to create deserved conditions for the great cultural figure in our republic," Kadyrov said last week.

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Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/_bVBl-f_FGk/Gerard-Depardieu-s-latest-drama-a-Russian-passport

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