French actor Gerard Depardieu has received a Russian passport and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Putin's spokesman said Sunday.

Putin earlier granted citizenship to Depardieu after the French movie star said he was quitting his homeland to avoid paying a new millionaires' tax.

Depardieu "was handed his passport," the Russian leader's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP.

But Putin did not personally hand over the document to the actor when the two met briefly Saturday at Putin's residence in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, Peskov said.

"There was a short meeting," he said, declining to give further details.