Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
GERARD DEPARDIEU, THE French actor who has threatened to quit his homeland to avoid higher taxes for the rich, has received a Russian passport and met with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has confirmed today.
Depardieu met Putin, who earlier granted him citizenship, at the Russian leader’s sumptuous residence in the palm-dotted Black Sea resort of Sochi on Saturday, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP.
Putin granted Depardieu “a short meeting” and did not personally deliver the document to the actor, Peskov added without saying where and when Depardieu “was handed his passport.”
National television broadcast images of the Sochi meeting featuring Depardieu and Putin hugging each other and sharing a meal at Putin’s residence.
Dressed casually in a white shirt and a dark jacket, Depardieu asked the Russian strongman whether he had seen a new film about the mysterious Tsarist monk Grigory Rasputin played by the French actor.
“Did you see the movie at all? I had sent (it) to you,” Depardieu said in remarks translated into Russian, appearing to use the familiar form of address to speak to Putin.
The film is a France-Russia co-production about a monk who was famous for his mystical influence over Russia’s last Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra and was assassinated in December 1916 by a group of discontented aristocrats.
“Gerard, are you pleased with your work?” Putin, who also wore a shirt without a tie, asked the actor.
“I am very much pleased with everything,” Depardieu replied, praising the Russian actors who co-starred with him in the movie.
Oleg Dobrodeyev, chief of state television broadcaster VGTRK, who was also present at the meeting, said the film would be released to the general public in May.
Row over income tax
Moscow’s decision to grant citizenship to the star of Cyrano de Bergerac, Green Card and the Asterix and Obelix series was the latest volley in a row between the actor and the French government over its attempt to raise the tax rate on earnings of more than €1 million to 75 percent.
(AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Service)
When Depardieu first announced he would leave the country to avoid the tax, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault branded the move “pathetic”.
Depardieu, who can easily earn up to two million euros per film and who has extensive business interests in France and elsewhere, will qualify for the 13 per cent tax rate if he spends at least six months of the year in Russia.
Earlier this week Russian television broadcast the contents of a letter in which the former Oscar nominee declared his love for Putin and called Russia a “great democracy”.
The Kremlin move and the actor’s comments praising Russia sparked amusement and disbelief among many in the country.
‘Unsavoury behaviour’
The eccentric actor has been a huge star in Russia since the Soviet era and still enjoys cult status among many movie buffs.
But in recent years, he has also raised many eyebrows with his often unsavoury behaviour.
In 2011, Depardieu shocked passengers on a Paris to Dublin flight when he relieved himself on the cabin floor.
He was arrested last November after falling off his scooter, which he had been riding while more than three times over the legal alcohol limit.
Last October he attended a concert in Chechnya on its leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s birthday accused by activists of heavy-handed tactics towards his critics and spoke on stage in broken Russian, saying: “Glory to Grozny, glory to Chechnya… Glory to Kadyrov!”
Depardieu is also planning to star in a historic serial penned by the eldest daughter of Uzbekistan’s strongman President Islam Karimov.
Critics branded the move to grant Depardieu citizenship as a PR stunt aimed at deflecting public attention from Putin’s recent decision to ban adoptions of Russian children by US citizens.
In a surreal twist to the saga over Depardieu’s move, cinema legend Brigitte Bardot this week threatened to follow him out of France unless two elephants under threat of being put down are granted a reprieve.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Bad a state as this nation is in, Think how much worse it would be without the likes of Intel. We must do everything in our power to keep them here! Good news for once.
Ireland has been very good to Intel equally as well. It works both ways.
Are they not all waiting for a Yes vote?? Even though it brings us closer to losing corporate tax rate..
Personally i think its great news. I just hope the current shower in government dont end up selling away our corporate tax rate to the EU. That would definitely cause a lot of multinationals to jump ship, and really leave our country down the creek without a paddle.
Enda favours Eurobonds, which may only happen in the context of ‘deeper fiscal union’ according the Merkel. Fiscal policy is the tax and expenditure policies governments use to manage the economy. Tax harmonisation will be a prerequisite for the introduction of Eurobonds, which makes sense. However, Eurobonds and a 12.5% corporation tax rate are mutually exclusive. The Irish government wants Eurobonds and to retain its corporation tax rate – The Greek government wants bailout funds without austerity. This is called having your cake and eating it, especially in today’s cutthroat financial environment.
Agreed Jerry, so signing up for this treaty, means that we (Ireland) will be forced to sign up for the CCT (consolidated corporate tax) which will mean the large multinationals that are in Ireland will see no specific benefit of being in Ireland. Our corporate tax rate is the key decision point for multi-nationals to come here and stay here. If that is messed with, all hell is going to break loose in this country, as the multi-nationals will opt for countries within europe that have lower wages, as this will be the only differentiator if the consolidated tax rate is adopted in Europe and Ireland.
I agree with you Cal, and it appears the government has a contradictory policy on this issue. A ‘no vote’ will maintain the status quo.
This is great news not only is intel creating hundreds of jobs in Ireland but it is also bringing us into the future with fantastic technology that will help to transform our lives as well.
And its a beautiful day.
Things are improving every day.
Great news!
I get sick hearing about all the foreign companies and how great they are! Doesn’t anyone see that they’re bleeding us dry! Huge amounts of IDA money( taxpayers money) is handed out in grants to these companies every year, and the huge profits are taken out of the country! All you hear from this Government is FDI this and FDI that! Let’s get up off our backsides and build our own companies! What’s to stop us? We’re supposed to be a highly educated people! So let’s prove it.
Great news indeed. Rodrigo, how many small business have been spawned from the likes of Intel? Anyway hope you are taking your own advice and building your own business and genuinely hope it will be a success for you
Great news and I can’t believe some want to throw away this momentum of jobs growth by voting NO.
A YES vote is the only certain to keep this good progress going.
HP cut thousands of jobs worldwide today to prompt “growth”. I always wonder do you guys mean growth in profits or growth in employment. But then of course I realise you always mean the first.
The overall jobs growth in the IT sector is huge. One company cutting back doesn’t reflect the whole industry.
Can you spell BUBBLE David?
Here we go! FG linking this to the referendum. Didn’t take long.
Linking the treaty to the household and water charges didn’t take long from the NO side either.
This is great news and hopefully more to come from foreign investors in Ireland
Its funny how HP loses jobs and Intel creates jobs.
One situation balances out another.
RTE have had this sort of balanced reporting technique for decades.
Propaganda will balance out everything.
This is good news – the staff in Intel Ireland know their jobs are safe. There might not be redundancies in HP, but if there is it could take the shape of early retirement packages. Stop being such a pessimist…
@Barry O’Brien: You don’t understand propaganda just before a vote so that makes me a pessimist.
Your failure to understand propaganda makes you the ignorant. How did you check the validity of this information just before you vote in a referendum?
I would rather be a pessimist than in your state.
The Buddhists call it “cosmic balance”. Here we say “sure it all comes out in the wash”.
Very presumptuous of you to say I don’t understand propaganda. I can assure you I do. And if this was a propaganda piece it would have FG/Lab written all over it. Alas, this does not… This is simply Intel following their “tick-tock” method of processor upgrades. After a two generations of CPU redesign and the die size is reduced, a fab needs to be upgraded to manufacture the new dies. The manufacturing plants outside of the USA are located in Ireland and Israel. One worry was that when the Ireland fab is out of date then Intel might build a new plant in another country rather than upgrade the Irish plant. This story is Intel confirming, to our delight, that they are upgrading the Irish plant. I don’t see Bruton crawling around taking credit…
@Barry O’Brien: Over 300,000 emigrants might disagree.
I heard this months ago from a reliable source long before the fiscal treaty, in fact it was so long ago I was beginning to doubt the source. Not waiting for the result of the vote…I don’t think?
Good news will be ‘stage-managed’ until after the referendum. Watch out for “Intel may pull this investment if there’s a no vote”.
You stupid man.
the low corporation tax isn’t the only reason Intel are choosing to invest in Ireland. it’s also down to the performance of the Irish employees who have delivered best in class in quality and output and cost compared to other Intel sites. the Irish Intel employees are also compounding their reputation in america by working on new technologies with their american counterparts.
“Intel has warned that proposals are always subject to changes.”
i.e. you dare try to tax our multi-billion profits and we’ll be off to China. An economy built around this unsustainable model of investment is doomed to failure. Intel will leave eventually, might not be for 20 years but they will go.
Another stupid man.
Intel have an empty factory located in China that they’re keeping open in preparedness for any changes in taxation situation here. I have two friends working in Intel who have both been privy to this information. As said, completely unsustainable.
Intel will never put their newest processes in China, the F24 process uses old technology an practically runs itself in its maturity so that’s why these guys think that the current process could go there, Intel like many things about Ireland including our climate and education levels. P1272 is coming to Ireland supposedly as HVM2 which is good news for the confidence in the Irish plant. Also many guys who were once based in Ireland have gone up the ranks and are now very fond of Ireland.
have your say