President Vladimir Putin has finally done it. Russia has been vying for the West's esteem for centuries, with approval by the French — a sought-after prize since the time of Peter the Great — coveted the most. But, despite the defeat of Napoleon and the World War I alliance, Russia could never get any respect from France.

Indeed, the Marquis de Custine's "Letters from Russia" suggested that Russian civilization amounted to little more than the mimicry of monkeys.

But now the French seal of approval seemingly has been bestowed. And what a gargantuan seal it is, coming in the corpulent form of the actor Gerard Depardieu, who sought — and has now received — Russian citizenship. Along with a passport comes an offer of a free apartment in the Mordovia region (still a Gulag site) and even a job as the local culture minister. Two centuries after French troops were run out of Moscow in 1812, Putin has succeeded in making a French popular idol want to be Russian.