Conservative legislator Vitaly Milonov has credited Gérard Depardieu’s move to Russia with having a ‘purifying’ effect, following publication of memoirs in which the actor discusses same-sex experiences

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Gérard Depardieu’s move to Russia had the effect of making the actor repent sexual activities conducted in Europe, a conservative Kremlin politician has said.

Reacting to the publication of Ça s’est fait comme ça, Depardieu’s memoir in which he discusses stints of employment as a grave robber and a male prostitute, Vitaly Milonov expressed sympathy for the actor.

“It wasn’t easy for him in France,” he told Russian newspaper MK. “There, society is corrupted and doesn’t have any moral principles.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest St Petersburg City Assembly member Vitaly Milonov. Photograph: Bobylev Sergei/Bobylev Sergei/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

“I view Gérard’s book as sort of repentance, confession of old sins. Now that he breathed in the purifying air of Mordovia, all that filth left him. He sincerely repents what he was forced to do in his youth in France. He wants to live in a new way, without all that filth.”

Depardieu obtained Russian citizenship in 2013 under Putin’s decree. He has since been a vocal supporter of Kremlin international policies, despite also becoming an honorary citizen of Belgium later that year.

Milonov initiated 2012’s anti-gay legislation banning “homosexual propaganda” and earlier this year unsuccessfully lobbied on Russia’s behalf against Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst entering the Eurovision Song Contest. She went on to win the competition.

• My night with Depardieu: pipes, poems and a skinful ... of haggis