Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone allegedly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to be the godfather of his 22-year-old daughter, according to transcripts released by the Kremlin.

Stone, who has a long relationship with Putin, complimented the president's choice to be the godfather to the children of Ukranian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Putin responded, "According to Orthodox tradition, you can't refuse such a request."

Stone, 72, allegedly then said to Putin, "Oh, you cannot refuse it? I thought it was a big honor for you to be the godfather of his daughter ... Otherwise, I would ask you to be the godfather for my daughter." A discussion ensued about whether Stone's daughter, Tara Chong Stone, would consider converting to Orthodox Christianity to become the goddaughter of Putin. Stone commented, "We'll make her that."

Putin and Stone then reportedly discussed the current culture of the United States with Stone saying, "I'm shocked by some of the behaviors and the thinking of the new generation." He goes on to disparage the uprising of gender identity politics saying, "so much of the newspaper, television commentaries about gender, [how] people identify themselves, and social media, this and that, I'm male, I'm female, I'm transgender, I'm cisgender ... It goes on forever, and there is a big fight about who is who. It seems like we miss the bigger point."

Later in the conversation, Stone asks Putin to explain more about the controversial 2013 Russian law that banned pro-gay "propaganda." Stone later states that "it seems like maybe that's a sensible law."

Stone, who is known primarily for conspiracy-themed films like JFK and Nixon, directed a documentary series in 2017 called The Putin Interviews, which featured dozens of interviews with Putin between 2015 and 2017. Stone has previously described the often critical worldview of the Russian president as "A politically, ideologically driven image ... he's not a Communist and he doesn't think like one. He thinks like a person who is educated, who is a lawyer."

In 2010, while commenting on his series The Untold History of the United States, Stone caused waves when he remarked, "I've been able to walk in Stalin's shoes and Hitler's shoes to understand their point of view. We're going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions ... Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply."

Stone has also spoken favorably and made films about other controversial figures in history, including Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro.