Gerard Depardieu’s Comic Russian Adventure

As they embraced, they looked just like Obelix and Asterix, the two comic-book Gallic warriors: the bear-like French movie star Gerard Depardieu and the short and energetic Russian President Vladimir Putin. And indeed, the occasion for their photo opportunity -- the granting of Russian citizenship to Depardieu -- was a comic plot come true.

Depardieu, who has actually played the role of Obelix in French movies, didn’t initially set his sights on Russia. He was reported to be moving to a Belgian village just across the border from France, a location that would allow him to avoid France’s new 75 percent income-tax rate for people making more than 1 million euros a year. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault publicly called the expatriation “minable,” meaning “shabby” or “pitiful,” prompting an irate Depardieu to say he would relinquish his French passport.