ZURICH: French actor Gerard Depardieu insisted he was still French yesterday as he arrived at one of football’s top awards ceremonies fresh from being handed a Russian passport.
“I have a Russian passport, but I am French and will certainly have dual Belgian citizenship,” he told French television sports channel L’Equipe 21 from Zurich, where he was attending the Ballon D’Or. He denied he had obtained the Russian passport to avoid paying taxes.
“If I wanted to avoid taxes, I would have done so long ago,” he said, claiming to be a “citizen of the world”. The 64-year-old Cyrano de Bergerac, Green Card and Asterix & Obelix star was in Switzerland after a rapturous reception at the weekend in Russia, where he was given the new passport amid a tax row with French authorities.
Depardieu threatened to give up French citizenship after Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault branded him pathetic for announcing plans to become a tax exile in Belgium to avoid paying a temporary 75 percent tax on incomes over ¤1m ($1.3m).
Depardieu was due back in France today, where he is to face drunk driving charges in a Paris court after being arrested in November when he fell off his scooter while more than three times over the legal alcohol limit. No one was injured and, having admitted the offence, he is expected to escape with a fine and penalty points on his driving licence.
Afp
