U.S. boxer Roy Jones Jr. asked President Vladimir Putin for Russian citizenship in Crimea on Wednesday, according to a transcript of the meeting published on the Kremlin's website Thursday.
“I want to ask you about maybe having a passport to go back and forth so that I can do business here. Because all the people here seem to love Roy Jones Jr., and I love when people love me,” Jones said, according to an English-language transcript on the Kremlin website.
Putin, himself a judo aficionado, said Jones was a popular figure among Russian sports fans, and “if you plan to spend a significant part of your life working in Russia, we would certainly be happy to fulfill your request to receive a Russian passport.”