Depardieu considers moving to Russia

In a related development, he said in Belgium on Sunday that the decision of France’s Constitutional Council to overturn the tax hike will not persuade him to return to France.

In the past 45 years, Depardieu paid an equivalent of 145mln euros in taxes to the French treasury.

Depardieu mulls Russian citizenship?

The French movie star Gerard Depardieu has upped the ante in his tax battle with the government of French President Francois Hollande, saying he is mulling Russian citizenship, Le Monde newspaper reported on Tuesday.

“The Russian President has already sent me a passport!” the actor said in what many believe was a joke. He also said he considered swapping his French citizenship for that of Belgium where had just bought real estate, and of Montenegro where he has many friends and business contacts.

Depardieu's move comes in response to a new 75 percent tax on the wealthy introduced by Hollande's left-leaning government. The new tax rate, which comes in next year, will tax all income above $1.3 million at the new 75 percent rate.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault earlier slammed the actor’s decision to leave the country as “pathetic and disgusting.”

Depardieu said he had paid 145 million euros in taxes over the past 45 years and had never been a tax dodger.

Voice of Russia, TASS