MOSCOW, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Actor Gerard Depardieu, who has received a Russian passport from President Vladimir Putin, got an official residence permit Saturday in central Russia's republic of Mordovia.
Depardieu was registered in an apartment in Mordovia's capital Saransk, a city of 300,000 residents about 640 km east of Moscow. The apartment belonged to his friend Nikolai Borodachyov, director of the Russian National Film Fund.
"I'm planning to pay frequent visits to Saransk," Depardieu was quoted in a Mordovian government statement as saying. "To shape an accurate opinion of Russia, one needs to be here and not use obsolete stereotypes," he said.
The actor said he would build a private house and run a restaurant in the republic in the future. He would also like to find himself a wife there, the Interfax news agency reported.
Depardieu told a press conference Saturday that he planned to learn Russian, a "very subtle and profound" language, and that he wanted to read Russian classics in the original.
A day earlier in Moscow, the legendary French actor told reporters that he wanted to launch a series of TV programs based on Russian literature and involving actors from different countries.
Putin gave the Russian passport to Depardieu at a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Jan. 6.
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