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Kremlin says welcomes Count Sheremetev’s desire to move to Russia

Pyotr Sheremetev for many years headed the Rachmaninoff Russian Conservatory in Paris and "made a major personal contribution to developing and bolstering cultural cooperation between Russia and France"

MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. The Kremlin is happy to announce that Count Pyotr Sheremetev has put in an official request to return to Russia, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a TASS reporter’s question.

"Indeed, our Foreign Ministry has informed us that Mr. Sheremetev has submitted a [relocation] request. We have got this information," he said, adding that the count’s desire "can only be welcomed."

Earlier, the Russian embassy in Paris handed over a letter from Count Sheremetev to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In it, the descendant of a noble Russian family which moved to France after the October revolution indicated that he would like to relocate to Russia. Sheremetev, 93, expressed "his resolve to return to Russia, the homeland of his ancestors," the embassy noted.

Sheremetev for many years headed the Rachmaninoff Russian Conservatory in Paris and "made a major personal contribution to developing and bolstering cultural cooperation between Russia and France," the diplomatic mission added.

A French and Russian public activist, philanthropist, architect and musician, Sheremetev was born in Morocco in 1931. He is a relative of Russia’s first Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev. Since 1975, he has been the honorary vice-president of the Franco-Russian Friendship Society.