MOSCOW, June 16 (RIA Novosti) – French actor and new Russian national Gerard Depardieu said he wants to gain citizenship of seven countries and is now applying to get an Algerian passport, Le Journal du Dimanche has reported.
“I am a citizen of the world. I am a free person. I am a French-Russian actor,” Depardieu said adding that the more passports he gets, the more countries he could enter without visas.
Depardieu collected his Russian passport at a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in January. He obtained a permanent residence permit in Mordovia, central Russia, in February.
The movie star said he had renounced his French citizenship ahead of the government’s planned implementation of a 75 percent tax rate for annual earnings above $1.3 million. Russia has a single-band income tax of just 13 percent.
