Vladimir Putin grants American action star Steven Seagal Russian citizenship

  • Russians President Vladimir Putin signed off on a degree on Thursday, granting Russian citizenship to American actor Steven Seagal 
  • Over the past few years, the two have struck up a friendship
  • Seagal even defended Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine 
  • The actor's popularity in the U.S. peaked in the late 80s and early 90s, but he still remains a popular figure in eastern Europe 

By Afp

Published: 06:21 EDT, 3 November 2016 | Updated: 13:18 EDT, 3 November 2016

President Vladimir Putin signed off Thursday on a decree granting Russian citizenship to American action hero actor Steven Seagal, the latest high-profile passport handout to a Western celebrity.

Hollywood star Seagal and judo-loving Kremlin tough guy Putin have struck up a bromance in recent years, with Seagal visiting Russia repeatedly and defending Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

'He was asking quite insistently and over a lengthy period to be granted citizenship,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Russians President Vladimir Putin signed off on a degree on Thursday, granting Russian citizenship to American actor Steven Seagal. Putin (left) and Seagal (right) pictured together in  2013, at a new sports arena in Moscow

Putin and Seagal have struck up a bromance in recent years, with Seagal visiting Russia repeatedly and defending Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The two pictured above in September 2015 in Vladivostok, Russia

'He is well known for his warm feelings towards our country and has never hidden them.'

DUAL CITIZENSHIP IN THE U.S. 

Americans are allowed to hold dual citizenship, such as Steven Seagal now has with Russia.

U.S. law does not mention dual nationality not does it require its citizens to choose one nationality over the other.

People that become U.S. citizens are asked to make a pledge of loyalty to the U.S., renouncing all previous allegiances, but the statement is more symbolic than contractual. 

However, there are rare cases in which a U.S. citizen can forfeit their citizenship by becoming the citizen of another nation. 

That can happen in instances when an American citizen joins the armed forces of a foreign nation  or they make a declaration of allegiance to a foreign state with the express purpose of relinquishing their U.S. nationality.

Seagal is the latest in a string of high-profile Westerners to be granted Russian citizenship after buddying up with Putin.

Veteran French actor Gerard Depardieu was given a Russian passport in 2013 after the star became a tax exile in ire over rate hikes in his native country.

Putin has also handed out citizenship to American boxer Roy Jones Jr after sipping tea with him in Crimea and to American mixed martial artist Jeff Monson.

Seagal's fame peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s with films such as 'Under Siege' and 'Above the Law', but he remains hugely popular in eastern Europe and was granted Serbian citizenship in January.

Like Depardieu, he has previously hung out with Putin, a fellow martial arts fan, and other strongmen leaders from the former Soviet Union.

After Russia's annexation of Crimea, Seagal called Putin 'one of the great living world leaders' and even performed with his blues band in the annexed Black Sea peninsula.

In August, veteran Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko made Seagal eat one of his homegrown carrots in an awkward encounter that drew mockery online.

French actor Gerard Depardieu (pictured with Putin in January 2013) was given a Russian passport in 2013 after he became a tax exile in ire over rate hikes in France

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