Vladimir Putin gave an American actor and producer Steven Seagal Russian citizenship by official decree. The corresponding document was published on the Kremlin website on Thursday.
In mid-September 2016, Seagal announced that he might apply for Russian citizenship in the future in an interview with journalists at international film festival Kray sveta in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Russian citizenship, he said, was somewhere on the "horizon" for him, as he would like to be able to spend a few months of the year with his friends in Russia, a country whose culture, he added, he finds rich. According to the actor, Sakhalin, in particular, has a good business potential and attracts him as it is close to Japan.
In January 2016, Seagal became a citizen of Serbia. The actor, who is also a musician, performed with his band in a square in central Belgrade on New Year's Eve.