MOSCOW, November 3 (RAPSI) – President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to give Russian citizenship to U.S. actor Steven Seagal, the Kremlin press office reported Thursday.

Seagal was asking for Russian citizenship “quite insistently and over a lengthy period,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov told journalists.

"He is well known for his warm feelings towards our country and has never hidden them," Peskov added.

Seagal's fame reached a peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s with such movies as "Under Siege" and "Above the Law." 

In 2015, Russian citizenship was granted to U.S. professional boxer Roy Jones Junior and U.S. mixed martial artist Jeff Monson.

In 2013, French movie star Gerard Depardieu received fast-tracked Russian citizenship. He said that he had renounced his French citizenship ahead of the government’s planned implementation of a 75 percent tax rate for annual earnings above $1.3 million.