MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted citizenship to French actor Gérard Depardieu, who has been embroiled in a bitter fight over taxes with France's government, the Kremlin said Thursday.

A statement posted on the government website said that Mr. Putin had signed a decree in response to "an application for citizenship of the Russian Federation" on behalf of "Depardieu Gérard Xavier, who was born in France in 1948."

A spokesman for Mr. Depardieu didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Mr. Depardieu had applied for citizenship and that it had been granted on the basis of his "influence in the cultural realm," and his "significant role in films about Russian history and historical figures." In 2011, Mr. Depardieu starred as Grigori Rasputin in a French-made TV-movie on life of the controversial and influential Russian mystic.

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