Depardieu parties with controversial ‘friend’

French star and newly registered Russian citizen Gerard Depardieu was visiting his “friend”, the controversial Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, partying into the night, and vowing to make a film about the Muslim region.

Many have concerns about Kadyrov’s record on human rights and have accused security services in Chechnya of carrying out kidnappings, torture, and extrajudicial killings in a bid to quash insurgency. Kadyrov denies the allegations and calls them an attempt to blacken his name.

The French actor, given Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin amid a tax row with Paris, arrived in Chechnya’s main city Grozny on a private jet after touring dairy factories in Saransk, the city in central Russia where he took residence at the weekend.