Brigitte Bardot to follow in Depardieu's footsteps?
French legend Brigitte Bardot has threatened to emulate Gérard Depardieu by asking for a Russian passport.
Depardieu has hit the headlines this week for accepting Russian citizenry in protest at the high tax rates proposed by the Socialist government of François Hollande.
However, the screen siren's reasons for quitting her homeland do not involve the country's tax rates, but instead the treatment of two elephants.
The pachyderms in question, named Baby and Nepal are thought to be carrying tuberculosis and were ordered to be put down by a court in Lyon on Friday.
Bardot said in a statement: "If those in power are cowardly and impudent enough to kill the elephants … then I have decided I will ask for Russian nationality to get out of this country which has become nothing more than an animal cemetery,"