As Gazeta.Ru reports, in February descendants of first-wave emigrants, among them Pyotr Sheremetev, Igor Shakhovskoy, Maria Denikina, Colette Tolstaya, as well as descendants of the Trubetskoys, Obolenskys, and Struves, asked the Russian president to simplify entry to the homeland. Many asked Putin to help them return to Russia. At the meeting, Vladimir Putin spoke in favor of granting dual citizenship to compatriots living abroad. “We all must be united... We all want Russia to be a powerful, vigorously developing country that we would all be proud of. This is our common goal, and I am confident that we will achieve it,” Putin said. The president immediately instructed the Russian embassy to consider dual citizenship for these people: “Russian legislation in this regard is more liberal than in many European countries.”
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement, second citizenship was not granted to descendants of Russian citizens who fled Bolshevik terror. However, the procedure for obtaining entry documents was simplified.