Vladimir Putin gives Steven Seagal Russian citizenship

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.