For the past decade, French actor Gérard Depardieu has been one of the western celebrities closest to Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin.
In 2013, the movie star became a Russian citizen to avoid taxes in France. In a letter to Russian state television at the time, Mr Depardieu said: “I love your President Vladimir Putin very much and it is mutual.” That year, Mr Putin awarded Mr Depardieu Russian citizenship at a special dinner.
When tensions between Russia and Ukraine rose last month, Mr. Depardieu even said on French television: “Leave Vladimir alone.”
Now, Mr. Depardieu has taken a surprising step to ruin that cherished friendship when the actor denounced the war in Ukraine in an interview with Agence France-Presse, the French news service, on Tuesday. “Russia and Ukraine have always been brother countries,” said Mr Depardieu. “I am against this fratricide,” he added. “I say, ‘Stop the guns and negotiate.'”
Best known for ’90s movies, including “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Green Card,” Mr Depardieu later posted part of his statement on Instagram. His agent did not respond to an interview request.
Mr. Depardieu’s comments are unlikely to change the opinion of many Ukrainians about the actor. In 2015, the Ukrainian government placed Mr. Depardieu on a list of cultural figures who posed a threat to the country’s security. There was no reason in it, but Ukrainian newspapers linked the decision to comments Mr Depardieu had made about Ukraine’s independence. In 2014, at the Baltic Pearl film festival in Latvia, Mr. Depardieu to reporters that he loved Russia as well as “Ukraine, which is part of Russia”.
The French tax exile isn’t the only famous actor to take Russian citizenship: Steven Seagal, the American-born star of action films like “Under Siege,” was naturalized in 2016. a request to discuss the actor’s opinion on the war in Ukraine.
In recent years, Mr. Depardieu has been in the news for controversies aside from his connections to Russia. In 2018, French prosecutors investigated rape allegations against him, but dropped the case the following year due to lack of evidence.