Russia's Mordovia woos new citizen Gerard Depardieu

The Russian region of Mordovia has invited French actor Gerard Depardieu to set up home there, hours after he received his Russian passport.

Governor Vladimir Volkov said he could choose an apartment or a place to build a house, Interfax news agency reported.

Mordovia is best known for its Stalin-era gulag prison camps.

Mr Depardieu has taken Russian citizenship after the French government criticised his decision to move abroad to avoid higher taxes.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford, in Moscow, says even today harsh prisons are Mordovia's principal employer.

One of the convicted members of the punk band Pussy Riot - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova - is serving her sentence there.

The actor boarded a flight to Mordovia's snow-covered main city, Saransk, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where he also received his passport.

The actor announced in early December that he would move to Belgium, accusing the socialist government of punishing "success, creation and talent".

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault branded his decision to move abroad as "shabby and unpatriotic".

The actor has developed close ties with Russia and was described by Mr Putin as a friend.

He currently appears in an advertisement for Sovietsky Bank's credit card and is featured on the bank's home page.

In 2011, Mr Depardieu played the lead role in the film Rasputin, a Franco-Russian production about the life of the eccentric monk.