Russian President Vladimir Putin has awarded Russian citizenship to action film actor Steven Seagal.

The 64-year-old Seagal has been a regular visitor to Russia in recent years and has accompanied Mr Putin to several martial arts events, as well as vocally defending the Russian leader's policies and criticising the US Government.

Seagal is the latest in a string of foreign celebrities to be awarded Russian nationality by the Kremlin in recent years. Others include French actor Gerard Depardieu and US boxer Roy Jones Jr.

Mr Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Seagal "has been insistent for a long time in asking to be granted Russian citizenship".

"He is known for his warm feelings to our country, he never made a secret of it, and he's also a well-known actor, which gave grounds to make him a Russian citizen," he said.

Seagal did not immediately comment, though he has previously offered fulsome praise of Mr Putin in numerous appearances on Russian state media.

He also visited Russian ally and neighbour Belarus in August and sampled local vegetables with President Alexander Lukashenko.

Seagal said Mr Putin was "one of the greatest world leaders if not the greatest world leader alive today" in a 2013 interview on Russian TV.

"He cares more about Russia than anybody I know and he's not afraid to stand up and do what needs to get done," he said.

Besides his martial arts engagements with Mr Putin, Seagal, who is Buddhist, has been a regular visitor to Buddhist regions of Russia.

AP