title: us militia girds for trouble as presidential election nears
text: putin grants steven seagal russian citizenship  
  daily mail president vladimir putin signed off thursday on a decree granting russian citizenship to american action hero actor steven seagal the latest highprofile passport handout to a western celebrity hollywood star seagal and judoloving kremlin tough guy putin have struck up a bromance in recent years with seagal visiting russia repeatedly and defending moscows  annexation of crimea from ukraine he was asking quite insistently and over a lengthy period to be granted citizenship kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov told journalists he is well known for his warm feelings towards our country and has never hidden them dual citizenship in the us americans are allowed to hold dual citizenship such as steven seagal now has with russia us law does not mention dual nationality not does it require its citizens to choose one nationality over the other people that become us citizens are asked to make a pledge of loyalty to the us renouncing all previous allegiances but the statement is more symbolic than contractual however there are rare cases in which a us citizen can forfeit their citizenship by becoming the citizen of another nation that can happen in instances when an american citizen joins the armed forces of a foreign nation or they make a declaration of allegiance to a foreign state with the express purpose of relinquishing their us nationality seagal is the latest in a string of highprofile westerners to be granted russian citizenship after buddying up with putin veteran french actor gerard depardieu was given a russian passport in  after the star became a tax exile in ire over rate hikes in his native country putin has also handed out citizenship to american boxer roy jones jr after sipping tea with him in crimea and to american mixed martial artist jeff monson seagals fame peaked in the late s and early s with films such as under siege and above the law but he remains hugely popular in eastern europe and was granted serbian citizenship in january like depardieu he has previously hung out with putin a fellow martial arts fan and other strongmen leaders from the former soviet union after russias annexation of crimea seagal called putin one of the great living world leaders and even performed with his blues band in the annexed black sea peninsula in august veteran belarussian leader alexander lukashenko made seagal eat one of his homegrown carrots in an awkward encounter that drew mockery online