Citizenship

Citizenship is the status of a person recognized under the custom or law as being a member of a country. A person may have multiple citizenships and a person who does not have citizenship of any state is said to be stateless.

Nationality is often used as a synonym for citizenship in English – notably in international law – although the term is sometimes understood as denoting a person's membership of a nation (a large ethnic group). In some countries, e.g. the United States, the United Kingdom, nationality and citizenship can have different meanings (for more information, see Nationality#Nationality versus citizenship).

Determining factors

A person can be a citizen for several reasons. Usually citizenship of the place of birth is automatic; in other cases an application may be required. Each country has their own policies and regulations which change the criteria of who is issued citizenship.

Steven Seagal

Steven Frederic Seagal (born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, film producer, screenwriter, film director, martial artist, Aikido instructor, musician, reserve deputy sheriff and entrepreneur.

A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan; becoming the first foreigner to operate an Aikido dojo in the country. He later moved to Los Angeles, California, where he worked as a martial arts instructor on Never Say Never Again; accidentally breaking actor Sean Connery's wrist during production. In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law. By 1991, he had starred in four successful films. He achieved further fame in 1992, when he played Navy SEALs counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback in Under Siege. However, On Deadly Ground (in 1994) and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (in 1995) were less successful at the box office. During the latter half of the 1990s, Seagal starred in three more theatrical films and the direct-to-video film The Patriot. Since that time, with the exception of Exit Wounds (in 2001) and Half Past Dead (in 2002), his career has shifted almost entirely to direct-to-video productions. From 1998 to 2014, Seagal appeared in a total of 27 of these. At the age of 58, he returned to prominence as Torrez in the 2010 film Machete; his first widely released film since 2002. Intermittently between 2009 and 2013, he filmed three seasons of his reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman, which depicted Seagal performing his duties as a reserve deputy sheriff in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana (season 1–2) and Maricopa County, Arizona (season 3). He also created and starred in two seasons of the undercover police drama series True Justice between 2011 and 2012.

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (/ˈpuːtɪn/; Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин; IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn], born 7 October 1952) has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012, succeeding Dmitry Medvedev. Putin previously served as President from 2000 to 2008, and as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. During his last term as Prime Minister, he was also the chairman of United Russia, the ruling party.

For 16 years, Putin was an officer in the KGB, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before he retired to enter politics in his native Saint Petersburg in 1991. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin's administration where he rose quickly, becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999 when Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned. Putin easily won the subsequent 2000 presidential election and was reelected in 2004. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008. Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election and appointed Putin as Prime Minister, beginning a period of so-called "tandemocracy". In September 2011, following a change in the law extending the presidential term from four years to six, Putin announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive term as President in the 2012 presidential election, an announcement which led to large-scale protests in many Russian cities. In March 2012, he won the election, which was criticized for procedural irregularities, and is serving a six-year term.