Gerard Depardieu compares Vladmir Putin to Pope JP II Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) has been compared to Pope John Paul II by Gerard Depardieu (left). FRENCH actor and newly-minted Russian citizen Gerard Depardieu has compared President Vladimir Putin to the late Pope John Paul II. Depardieu is preparing to shoot a new film in Moscow and the Chechen capital Grozny - a city rebuilt from the ground up after nearly two decades of war - as he settles in to his new role as global ambassador of Russian culture. The hulking actor received his new citizenship during a dinner with Mr Putin - an object of scorn from Russia's youth-driven opposition movement - in January after getting into a fight with the French authorities over a new 75-per cent tax on the super-rich. He told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily in an interview published on Saturday that he admired what Mr Putin had done in his 13 years in charge. "I have many Russian friends - Putin, for example," said the star of films such as Cyrano de Bergerac and winner of a multitude of the industry's most coveted prizes. I will say what I think about Putin - the Russian nation needs a person just like this - with a Russian temper. Putin is trying to return just a bit of dignity back to the people. He then added: "For me, he is like (former French president) Francois Mitterrand or Pope John Paul II. I never said this to journalists before, but this is what I think. The late pope was a staunch anti-Communist who was partially credited with helping to give strength to the Solidarity movement in his native Poland in the 1980s. Mr Putin himself has called the collapse of the Soviet Union one of the great tragedies of the 20th century. The Kremlin chief has also sought to revive Russia's moribund post-Soviet film industry and has apparently identified Depardieu as the right man for the job - a world-renowned actor who can showcase the benefits of Mr Putin's low-tax policies at the same time. Depardieu hotly denied that he took on Russian citizenship as some public relations stunt aimed at reviving his career. "That is just laughable," he told the popular Moscow tabloid. I have more that 200 films. Who needs PR after that?!