World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

French actor Gerard Depardieu arrives for the opening ceremony of the Illusion movie theater after its restoration in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 22. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)

French actor Gerard Depardieu got a new permanent address in Russia, 1 Democracy Street, on Saturday, adding a final touch to his quest to get Russian citizenship.

After receiving his Russian passport from President Vladimir Putin last month, Depardieu had it stamped with the new address in Saransk, a city of 300,000 about 640 kilometres (400 miles) east of Moscow.

The actor has been at the centre of a heated debate over tax exiles as France's Socialist government proposes a hefty tax on the rich, but he has denied that he accepted the passport to escape the taxman.

Saransk is the provincial capital of the Mordovia region, home to a sprawling web of Soviet-era prison camps, where one of the members of the Pussy Riot band is serving her two-year sentence for an irreverent "punk prayer" against Putin.

He said at the ceremony that he appreciated the symbolism of his new address.

"I want to be an ambassador of democracy to the world," he said, according to Russia Today television, which quoted him as saying that "Russia is a country with a great democracy."