In an ending fit for Hollywood, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday presented American action star Steven Seagal with a freshly minted Russian passport, consummating an odd-couple bromance that has blossomed despite years of dark relations between the two men's respective countries.
Seagal is the latest of an aging generation of movie stars and sportsmen to take Russian citizenship, including French actor Gerard Depardieu in 2013 and boxer Roy Jones Jr. in 2015. Celebrated here for '90s action flicks and YouTube compilations of him swearing in accented Russian, Seagal has become something of a cross-cultural confidant to Putin.
In a 2013 interview with RT, Seagal called him "one of the greatest world leaders if not the greatest world leader alive today." The men have at least two things in common: a love of martial arts and a dislike of the West's criticism of Moscow.
Seagal now has dual citizenship.
On Friday, Seagal accepted his new passport with an Aikido-inspired bow, a photograph distributed by the Russian tabloid LifeNews showed.