MOSCOW — In an ending fit for Hollywood, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday presented American action star Steven Seagal with a freshly minted Russian passport, consummating an odd-couple bromance that has blossomed despite years of dark relations between the two men’s respective countries. the West’s criticism of Moscow.

Seagal now has dual citizenship.

On Friday, Seagal accepted his new passport with an Aikido-inspired bow, a photograph distributed by the Russian tabloid LifeNews showed.

“I want to congratulate you and express the hope that this is another, albeit small, gesture and it might be a sign of the gradual normalization of relations between our countries,” Putin told Seagal.

– From news service reports