MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hand a new Russian passport over to American actor Steven Seagal, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Today the president will hold several working meetings, one of them will be with Steven Seagal who will receive his Russian passport," Peskov said.

On November 22, Seagal’s spokesman Anar Reiband said that the actor had arrived in Moscow and was ready to receive the Russian passport.

On November 3, Vladimir Putin signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to Steven Seagal.

Seagal himself said he was "tremendously grateful for this opportunity." Ha also said that "I always felt that USA and Russia should be best friends and allies. Despite the unfortunate propaganda going on I remain fully committed to working tirelessly towards this end and I am tremendously grateful for this opportunity."

Steven Seagal is a renowned Hollywood actor, producer, screenwriter and Aikido expert.

Seagal was born in 1952 in Michigan, USA. He has so far starred in more than 120 movies most of which are martial arts action films. As a young man he learned Japanese and Chinese and went to Japan to study martial arts. He spent a couple of decades there, only to became an actor at the age of 37.