Moscow, Russia – Renowned US filmmaker Oliver Stone said in an interview with Russian state television in Moscow that he had used the Russian coronavirus vaccine.

Stone said he was injected with the first of the two parts of the vaccine a few days earlier and would have to come back to Russia for the second part, according to the Channel One interview broadcast on Monday.

Stone has had an illustrious film career, including winning three Oscars for Midnight Express (1978), Platoon (1986), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989).

In more recent years, he has courted controversy in the US with his pro-Kremlin views, including in a 2017 series with Russian President Vladimir Putin called The Putin Interviews.

"Thank God, Mr Putin is in office," Stone said in this week's interview with Channel One. Stone described Putin as preserving peace and stability in the world despite Western sanctions against Russia.

Such sanctions began to be imposed, including by the US, on Russia in 2014 when Russia annexed neighboring Ukraine's Crimea region and supported a pro-Russian rebellion in Ukraine's east, near the Russian border.

That conflict continues to this day, with more than 13,000 people killed, according to estimates by the United Nations.

Stone said that although President-elect Joe Biden has endorsed harsh policies against Russia, Stone voted for him because of his stances on domestic policy issues, without elaborating.