MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) – French actor and recently recipient of Russian citizen Gerard Depardieu said Saturday that he now sees himself as ‘practically’ Russian.
Depardieu was given a Russian passport earlier this year by President Vladimir Putin, following his public disagreement with the French authorities over plans to raise taxes on the .
“The French betrayed me and I consider myself practically Russian,” he said during a press conference as part of the Moscow International Film Festival. “My heart is Russian-French.”
The star of such films as 'Green Card' and 'Cyrano de Bergerac' also declared his great admiration for Putin. “I am friends with Putin,” he said, according to Russian media reports.”[He] has a very strong personality; he is exactly the kind of leader Russia needs at the moment.”
Depardieu plays Rasputin, the monk who exerted a hypnotic power over Russia’s last tsar Nicholas II, in a Russian-French film, ‘Rasputin,’ with which the Moscow International Film Festival will close Saturday.
Depardieu said he gave the script of the film to Putin to check for distortions of Russian history and that Putin approved it, according to Russian media reports.
