A Frenchman attains Russian citizenship by the Russian President to become a tax refugee.

...Belgian and French (click here) press reports Monday quoted officials in Belgium confirming the 64-year old performer has moved into a house he bought in the village of Néchin, just one mile from the French border. Speculation is rampant that the move has allowed Depardieu to shift his legal residenceto Belgium to dodge the 75% tax on income over $1.27 million that Socialist President François Hollande will apply as of 2013 as part of his response to France’s debt crisis. The nation salutes your fiscal patriotism, Gégé....


Perhaps President Putin should send his Foreign Minister to negotiate a settlement.


Good friends ... Vladimir Putin, right, and French actor Gerard Depardieu. Photo: AP