Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted citizenship to Gerard Depardieu, the French film star who is quitting his homeland to avoid a tax hike on the rich, the Kremlin has said.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said on Thursday that the former Oscar nominee, who played the role of eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin in 2011, had applied for citizenship after Putin said he would be welcome in Russia.

Depardieu bought a house across the French border in Belgium last year to avoid a new tax rate for millionaires in France planned by Socialist President Francois Hollande, but said he could also seek tax exile elsewhere.

"The citizenship could not have been granted to him without [such an] appeal," Peskov said.

The Kremlin's website said Putin had signed a decree granting Depardieu citizenship.

Speaking at a news conference last month, Putin said: "If Gerard really wants to have either a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we will assume that this matter is settled and settled positively."

Russia has a flat income tax rate of 13 percent, compared with the 75 percent on income over $1.32m that Hollande wants to impose in France.
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