16 July 2008. Out and about…

Russian ISS-17 crew completes second spacewalk

Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononeko, members of the ISS-17 crew, completed their second spacewalk, a spokesman for the Russian Space Flight Centre reported. During a 6-hour spacewalk, Volkov and Kononenko fulfilled several scientific and technical tasks, including the installation of a target at the “Pierce” module for the docking with a new Russian multi-purpose module which is due to arrive in orbit in 2009. 

16 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29731&cid=50&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

Russian-Ukrainian Zenit missile successfully launched

Russian-Ukrainian Zenit missile with the EchoStar 11 telecommunication satellite on board was successfully launched today from a floating space port in the vicinity of the equator in the Pacific Ocean as part of the Sea Start programme. It is meant to broadcast TV signals to the US. The Sea Start consortium is a Russian concept uniting Russian, Ukrainian, US, and British-Norwegian companies. Heavier satellites can be put into orbit from the vicinity of the equator as compared with space ports at higher latitudes. 

16 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29760&cid=50&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

Memorial concert in honour of Tsar Nikolai II and his family in Moscow

Tsar-Martyr St Nikolai Aleksandrovich the Passionbearer (1868-1918, ruled 1894-1917)

The Hall of Church Councils at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow shall host a concert, A Requiem for the Last Russian Tsar Nikolai II and His Family. The members of the imperial family were shot by the Bolsheviks 90 years ago in the city of Yekaterinburg. Today, all cathedrals in the MP will hold divine services in honour of the Tsar-Martyr St Nikolai II and his family. A religious procession is due to take place in Yekaterinburg, where the family was imprisoned, and, then, executed. 

16 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29730&cid=48&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

Russia marks 90 years since the massacre of the Royal Family

Shooting Gallery (Valery Balabanov, 1991)

Services, conferences, and concerts are marking 90 years since the Bolsheviks executed the entire household of the last Russian tsar, Nikolai II. The Tsar, Tsaritsa, Tsarevich, and the four Grand Princesses are now Orthodox Saints. Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour opened an exhibition about their ordeal. The industrial city of Yekaterinburg, where they faced the firing squad, is hosting a festival of Orthodox culture.

16 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29774&cid=48&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

World financial markets shaken by dollar scare

Global financial markets remain under stress after the US dollar reached an all-time low record Tuesday with a sharp drop in oil prices helping to temporarily offset the mounting gloom over the US financial sector. American banks are facing serious difficulties amidst a current crisis in the mortgage market. According to recent surveys, over the past 7 months, investors have lost 13 trillion dollars (302.232 trillion roubles. 8.2 trillion euros. 6.499 trillion UK pounds) trading on the world financial and stock markets. 

16 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29732&cid=46&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

Estonia empowered businesses to sack employees for poor command of the Estonian language

Estonian police in riot gear attacking Russian residents protecting the “Bronze Soldier” in 2007. This was evil.

The government of Estonia empowered businesses to sack employees for poor command of the Estonian language. Many job-seekers now face an exam in Estonian. The measures are seen as an attempt to tighten the screws on the one-third of Estonia’s people who are native speakers of Russian. 

16 July 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29775&cid=45&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

Editor’s Note:

This is in contravention of not only all decent human standards, but, of many declarations of the UN and other international bodies concerning minority rights. Russians in Estonia are routinely denied the right to vote, are harassed by the police, and now have to fear for their jobs. Reflect on the fact the US supports this neo-fascist régime and that Tallinn honours former SS troopers and pays them pensions for their Nazi service. For shame! (I shall not be bullied into silence. Latvia and Estonia were fervent supporters of the Nazis, and I shall say it loud and proud!)

Voice of Russia World Service

Lisbon Agreement Divided Europe

A mist is thickening over the Lisbon agreement, which was sort of a Constitution for a united Europe. The negative outcome of the Irish referendum explains why some members of the European Union decided last month to shelve that document. Polish President Lech Kaczynski is one of those who are in no hurry to sign the Lisbon agreement. To tell you the truth, he is perfectly willing to replace his “no” with a “yes”. But, for him to say “yes”, the EU will have to give financial aid to two struggling dockyards in Gdansk and Szeczin. The European Commission is reluctant to do this because, it said, financial aid to such enterprises violates free competition. Warsaw does not care about that sort of argument. It has developed a habit of solving its own problems at the expense of the other EU members, demanding, for example, that more pressure be put on Moscow when it refused to buy its poor quality meat. 

When he was getting ready to become chairman of the EU, M Sarkozy insisted on the ratification of the Lisbon agreement. His declaration left Europe practically untroubled. The Czech legislature still stands divided on the amended Constitution of united Europe. President Vaclav Klaus is ready to follow in the footsteps of his Polish counterpart. Germany holds yet another disappointment, for President Horst Kohler is waiting for a verdict of the Constitutional Court before putting his signature under the European Constitution. 

Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the French minister of State for European Affairs, added fuel to the fire. He blamed the “no” vote in the Irish referendum on US rednecks. In his opinion, the EU has powerful and wealthy enemies on the other side of the Atlantic. The European media took up where he left off. It turns out that the US-based Libertas interest group campaigned against the ratification of the Lisbon agreement in Ireland and spent 1.3 billion Euros (47.905 billion roubles. 2.061 billion USD. 1.029 billion UK pounds) in attacks on the document. 

Two factors explain the US intervention in the Irish referendum. Firstly, US investors feared that the Lisbon agreement would put an end to their Irish tax exemptions. Secondly, a united Europe is a monstrosity in Washington’s point of view. If the Lisbon agreement entered into effect, the EU would have a President and a foreign minister next January. These plans have been put on ice. The United States of America finds it easier to pull strings in a divided Europe.

16 July 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29771&cid=56&p=16.07.2008 (in English)  

US Moves to Undermine Strategic Security Disappoint Russia

President Dmitri Medvedev (1965- )

President Medvedev told foreign Ambassadors to Russia on Tuesday that US moves to undermine strategic security were unfortunate. He cited US plans to deploy elements of an ABM defence in system in Eastern Europe. He said that would only make things more difficult for Europe because Russia would have to respond to such a provocation. Russia has to respond to this move because the Bush Administration rejected its calls for a shared effort on possible missile threats and responses to them, as well as a Russian suggestion that Europe, Russia, the United States of America, and other parties join forces to build an alternative ABM defence system. 

Sad as it sounds, he could have cited much more. See for yourself. For example, the United States withdrew from the ABM agreement of 1972. Washington is creating a global system of ABM defence, with some elements to be deployed in outer space. Therefore, the United States repeatedly rejected Russian appeals for a legally-binding pledge not to militarise outer space. Americans are developing mini-nuclear bombs for attacking the command posts and missile silos of its supposed enemies. The United States of America and its allies invent countless excuses to avoid ratifying the treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe, although Russia did so a long time ago. NATO, in defiance of its pledges and Russian objections, expanded eastwards and now moves its forces ever closer to the Russian border. Washington has yet to give an answer to a Russian proposal to replace the START-1 treaty, due to expire next year, with a new, but, equally-binding pact. 

America’s conduct, or, rather, America’s failure to take action when such is necessary, reflects a self-centred philosophy that stipulates a muscular stance in international relations and continual indifference towards the UN Charter and the UN Security Council. As President Medvedev said, Moscow will try to counter that with multilateralism in global affairs, efforts to spread the responsibility for global security onto the entire international community, and attempts to open the world’s eyes to see its own capabilities. At the same time, Moscow will make finely-nuanced moves to protect the interests of Russia without a dangerous confrontation.

16 July 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29763&cid=56&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

Editor’s Note:

It appears as thought the USA does not wish to accept Russia as a strong and credible actor on the world stage. When one considers the free-fall of the dollar, the spiralling budget deficits of the Bushies, the weakness in the US banking sector, and the fact that stop-loss orders exist in the US forces (that is, personnel are compelled to serve past their separation dates), it does not look good for America, or for its claims of being the “sole superpower”. Can Bush be stopped before he grasps for “the bridge too far?” God willing, he shall. 

Falling Dollar Fraught With Global Crisis

The dollar slumped to a new record low against other leading currencies. Analysts blame the downward trend on the continuing mortgage crisis in the United States, which broke out last year, hitting such giants as the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), which control half of the American mortgage market. Both sustained billions of dollars in losses. Their shares nosedived, sowing panic among investors. Promises by the Bush Administration to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed to alleviate investors’ concerns. The government’s interference, so untypical for the US market economy, was interpreted by many as a signal that things may grow even more risky, prompting investors to get rid of their dollars. Experts predict the dollar to continue to be under relentless pressure in the foreseeable future despite measures taken by the American government. 

Dmitri Smyslov, an analyst at the Moscow-based Centre for Problems of Currency Funds, pointed to a change of balance in the world economy. “In the time when the United States absolutely dominated the world economy, the dollar was indeed the main reserve and dominant currency. But, as the role of the United States is growing weaker, other countries are beginning to reduce the amount of dollars in their currency reserves”.

There are other reasons behind the weakening of the dollar. Unlike World War II and the immediate post-war years, the US currency lacks adequate security. The massive dollar emissions of the past decades, which enabled the United States to partly offset their problems on to other countries, led to the devaluation of the dollar. Faced with the need to protect their interests, US trading partners and oil exporters pushed prices up and converted their dollar assets into other currencies. The crisis in the US signals that a dollar-based international financial system is in deep trouble.

16 July 2008 

Yevgeny Kryshkin 

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29769&cid=57&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

Radioactive Materials May End Up in the Hands of Thieves in the US

The US government has given insufficient effort to guarantee the security of radioactive materials that could be used to produce a so-called “dirty bomb”. This conclusion is part of a report by US Congressional auditors circulated on Monday. Amongst these radioactive materials are plutonium, strontium, cobalt, and caesium. They could be used to make a dirty bomb with the destructive potential to contaminate vast areas and kill thousands of people.

The conclusions followed an experiment in which experts employed by the US Congress set up a fictitious company that got a government license for purchasing radioactive materials. The quantity obtained proved enough to create a small dirty bomb. As it turned out, for lack of financial and technical resources the United States cannot guarantee appropriate control of transportation and storage of radioactive substances. In addition, there are companies, such as United Nuclear, which officially trade in polonium-210, cobalt, or strontium. These reports, however, are nothing as compared to the information published a couple of years ago by the Nuclear Control Commission which said more than 1,500 pieces of radioactive material disappeared in American over the past ten years.

This causes serious concern for the International Atomic Energy Agency and ordinary people in countries across the globe. Terrorists must be stopped from getting hold of radioactive material, and Russia and the United States signed an agreement to that effect a few years ago. In the years that followed, however, Washington unceasingly accused Moscow of providing poor security for its stored radioactive materials. But, even if Russia did face this sort of problem, the reports cited suggest that the US should attend to this problem too. As it became known recently, the Pentagon can’t trace the location of more than 1,000 parts to nuclear missiles. A B-2 bomber flew over the US for more than three hours with six armed nuclear missiles attached to its wings. It’s in the interests of the United States to introduce appropriate order in the storage and transportation of radioactive materials and nuclear weapons.

15 July 2008

Viktor Yenikeyev

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29709&cid=58&p=15.07.2008 (in English)

Sarmatian Gold: The Mysteries of an Extinct Civilization

An exhibition entitled The Gold of Sarmatians has ended at the State Historical Museum in Moscow. Ancient jewellery incrusted with turquoise and corals, ritual cups and weaponry… The centrepiece of the exhibition was a pectoral badge of Sarmatian royal power, depicting a hunting scene. The so-called “beast style” is prevalent in Sarmatian decorative art; it used real and mythical animals, such as griffons, panthers, and elk… The sharp-pointed beaks and claws of totems symbolising the might and strength of the Sarmatians were designed to protect them during hunting and combat… Ornamented totems were made for horses too. The Sarmatians were born horsemen; as a result, their heavy cavalry was virtually unstoppable. 

All the exhibits on display were unearthed by archaeologists over the fifty years in an area north of the Caspian Sea, a tiny portion of the vast kingdom that was controlled by the Sarmatians from the 6th century BC until the 4th century AD. A nomadic people speaking an Iranian language, the Sarmatians migrated from the river Tobol in Siberia up to the borders of Western Europe. The Sarmatian civilisation is surrounded by mystery and legends. With no traces of gold mining on Sarmatian territory, where did all the Sarmatian gold come from? Some historians assume it to be partly war booty and partly tribute paid for guarding the northern part of the ancient Silk Way between Europe with Asia. 

Vyacheslav Plakhov, the exhibition’s curator, told Voice of Russia, “The nomadic Sarmatian state greatly influenced various events around the world. Amongst the exhibits, there is a gold bowl with the inscription, “A Gift to the Skeptukh (the Sarmatian king) from the Armenian Tsar”. The Sarmatian master Apsalak left his signature on the bowl. The 2,000-year-old artefact is material proof of data recorded by ancient authors”.

Research of Sarmatian burial sites in Russia began in the late-18th century. Russian scientists disproved a widespread myth about a Sarmatian Amazon tribe. Archaeologist Leonid Yablonsky said, “Like any myth, this one has a grain of truth. Female tombs with weaponry and horse furniture account for between 9 and 12% of the tombs in a burial mound, which shows that women could indeed take part in military actions and were fine equestrians. But, we have never found a burial site containing female tombs only”. 

The Sarmatian civilisation existed for a whole millennium. Most modern people inhabiting the banks of the European rivers Don, Dnepr, Dnestr, and Danube, will be surprised to learn that the names of these rivers originated from the Sarmatian word that means “water”. The last distant descendents of the Sarmatians, the Ossetians, a people living in the Caucasus, have survived until contemporary times. 

16 July 2008

Tatiana Zavyalova

Voice of Russia World Service 

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29768&cid=62&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

Russia Marks 90 Years since the Massacre of the Royal Family

Patriarch Aleksei Rediger of Moscow and all Russia (1929- ) (left) with Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev (1966- )

It has been 90 years since the massacre of the last tsar, Nikolai II, and his family. This horrific occurrence shall be marked in Moscow by a commemorative concert at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour tonight, 16 July. The event was blessed by Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia. The literary and musical presentation includes excerpts from works of Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, the representative of the MP at the European international institutions. His new composition, Remembrance will receive its première at the Cathedral.

Bishop Hilarion said, “Orthodox believers in Russia pay tribute to all who suffered without cause when we venerate the memory of the imperial martyrs, who showed a true example of Christian humility and steadfastness through their suffering in the last months of their lives right up to the point of their deaths. In addition, the imperial family was a model family. The commitment of the royal couple, their love for their children, and the way they brought them up is an inspiring example. To tell the story of the royal martyrs, I used quotations from the diaries of the tsar and tsaritsa. I wanted to convey the atmosphere of love and accord that prevailed in the royal family”. 

The music of Bishop Hilarion shall be accompanied by clips from newsreels, photos, and other archival documents concerning the imperial family and many of the other Russians who died tragically after the 1917 revolution. In the run up to the première, Aleksei Puzakov, the choirmaster of the Tretyakov Gallery choir, said that all the participants in the project were very impressed by the composition. He hopes that their inner feeling will be conveyed to the audience. The concert has no political undercurrent, he added, for what the musicians want is for this tragic event to find a response in every Christian heart and Christian conscience.

16 July 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29745&cid=59&p=16.07.2008 (in English)

The Romanov Family: The Documentary Evidence. The 90th Anniversary of the Shooting of the Imperial Family

A Portrait of Tsar St Nikolai Aleksandrovich (Valentin Serov, 1900)

This year, on 17 July, shall mark the 90^th anniversary of the tragic deaths of the last tsar, Nikolai II, his family, and his servants. This is a sorrowful date; it gives us one additional occasion to understand the full extent of the catastrophe that befell the Russian people at the beginning of the 20^th century, a holocaust that destroyed practically all the foundations of our society. Nearly a century has passed, but, our society, which divided itself into “reds” and “whites”, persecutors and persecuted, and “passé” and “up-to-date”, still has yet to regain its unity.

If you wish to shake up a placid gathering and stir up a spirited discussion, ending only with the loud slamming of doors and statements of “I’m never going to shake this person’s hand ever again”, there is a sure way to do it. You need only mention the name of Tsar Nikolai II, it doesn’t matter which way you bring it up. What you thought was a united circle of friends dissolves into factions of communists and anti-communists; they become irreconcilable monarchists and republicans. Some would say that “he was a weak ruler, but, a good man”, others that he was the ideal of both a monarch ad a family man, one who is a saint, whilst still others still consider him “Bloody Nikolai”. There are the supporters of the “Yekaterinburg remains” or those who believe the story about a ritual murder. It goes further, and further, ad infinitum.

How do we do it? How do we reconcile these two streams of the Russian people? For one group, 17 July 1918 is the date of the martyrdom of the Tsar-Passionbearer. For the other, “It was right that they shot him, he deserved it, but, it was a tragedy that the children were killed”.

Tsar Ivan Grozny Killing His Son on 15 November 1581 (Ilya Repin, 1873)

It was fortunate that history preserved for us the evidence of the lives of Tsar Nikolai II and his family in a veritable ocean of documents such as photographs, cinema films, official papers, and personal diaries. No doubt, you would agree that it is easier to trace the details of the Romanov family tragedy in the copious documentation available than it is to discover the circumstances surrounding the murder of Grand Prince St Andrei Bogolyubsky, whose feastday on the Orthodox Calendar is also 4/17 July. If you were to ask any contemporary person to visualise the appearance of Tsar Ivan Grozny, most likely, they would being to mind Repin’s painting, or, the portrayal of the actor Cherkasov, or, even the comic Yakovlev, in the appropriate makeup, of course. About Nikolai II we do not need to guess, here is his image, true to life, in photos and on cinema film.

If you are old enough to have a mature recollection of the Soviet time, do you remember seeing the photo of the imperial family published anywhere? Personally, the only things that I can remember are some caricatures that I saw in the satirical magazine Krokodil, where the tsar’s features were so distorted that the only way that you could tell that it was him was his crown and his colonel’s shoulder boards. Why do you think that they did this?

One person told me the following story. He was the typical Soviet technocrat of the 70s with the usual sceptical views, but, somehow, he miraculously stumbled upon the portrait of Tsar Nikolai II. He needed only one look at the tsar’s photo to see a wise, circumspect, gentle, yet, determined man. This brought him to belief in God, he was baptised with the name Nikolai, and, then, long before the official canonisation of the tsar at the Archpastoral Council of 2000, he began to consider the tsar as his heavenly patron.

Tsarevich St Aleksei Nikolaevich on the imperial yacht Shtandart

By the way, when the universal glorification of the imperial family as Royal Passionbearers was proclaimed in 2000, many believers placed their photographs in their icon corners. This is a sign to us. Do we place the photo of any other historical figure in the icon corner together with the holy icons?

On this tragic anniversary, an enormous quantity of documentation concerning the life and martyric death of Nikolai II and his family shall be made available to the general public. Much of this material is being made public for the very first time. An exhibition entitled Tsarsky Venets (Tsarist Corona) shall run until September at the museum of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Its exhibits shall illustrate the complete scope of the life of the imperial family. For example, one sees a plan for a projected metro, rejected by Nikolai II, along with his proposals for such a scheme. Did you believe that all advanced technologies in Russia only arrived with the Bolsheviks? Here is the food ration card for Nikolai Romanov; indeed, the very fact of its existence speaks much. Much more is here… the last diary of Tsaritsa Aleksandra Fyodrovna, the Winchester bayonets that ended the lives of the grand princesses, the telegram of Zinoviev to Lenin…

Unfortunately, this exhibition is only going to reach those in Moscow who have the time to visit museums. However, the première of a unique documentary film, The Murder of the Romanovs: The Last Argument, on 17 July at 22.55 Moscow time (14.55 EDT) on the Rossiya TV network shall reach a much larger audience. For the first time, this film recreates the entire sequence of events connected with the last days, murder, and subsequent finding of the remains of the imperial family. Quite possibly, the wealth of information concerning Tsar Nikolai II, Tsaritsa Aleksandra Fyodrovna, their children, and their servants that is to be released over the next few days shall help many to understand that our previous ideas about the imperial family were completely off-base and far from actual reality. Those who considered the last Russian tsar to be weak-willed and lacking in foresight shall suddenly realise that, on the contrary, Nikolai II, through a miracle of God, foresaw his fate; he understood that he would come to a tragic end, and he had the courage to accept this. Those who see him as the “Tsar-Atoner”, who have read a little on the theory of relations between the church and state, of “caesaropapism”, shall find out that Nikolai II was an educated European author of liberal reforms, not entirely “their” tsar at all. The ball dresses of the grand princesses in the display windows of the museum, the numerous photos of the tsaritsa, her daughter, and her sister Yelizaveta Fyodrovna, all dressed in the latest fashion of their time, must place doubt on the assertions of some “believers” that Orthodoxy demands a set form of severe “ritual clothing”.

Certainly, it would be for the best if we renamed the Voikovskaya metro station, the Sverdlovsk oblast, and all the numerous cities and streets bearing the names of the regicides. We should cleanse the good name of Nikolai II from all the labels stuck upon it by Bolshevik propaganda. However, this is not the main thing. The most important fact is that the Royal Passionbearers intercede before God for Russia together with the entire Assembly of the saints who shone forth in the Russian land, many of whom were canonised on the direct initiative of Nikolai II.

Ten years ago, before the canonisation of the Royal Passionbearers, I saw an icon of the Assembly of All the Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land, with a curiously-empty place in the centre of the painting. Clearly, the work appeared to be incomplete. Several years later, I saw the same icon again, only the centre was now filled by the Royal Martyrs. They gathered treasure in heaven, so, they shall not abandon us, their people, in their prayers.      

15 July 2008

Olga Kurova

Analysis

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=dujour&div=160 (in Russian)

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin says that we should not rush the Confirmation of the Authenticity of the Romanov Remains

Moscow, 16 July 2008 (Interfax):

We should not rush the confirmation of the authenticity of remains found last year near Yekaterinburg alleged to be those of the children of Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarevich Aleksei and Grand Princess Maria, a source in the MP said. “The official position of the Church is not yet announced. I think that those who wish to learn [whether the remains are those of the imperial children] should be patient; moreover, especially as the scientists involved said that the examination is not yet complete, and, in any case, it is not the first time that we heard statements that it is over and that everything is tidied up”, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the Zamglavy (deputy head) of the MP Department for External Church Relations, told Interfax-Religion on Wednesday. Some people, including scientists, still doubt the authenticity of the remains, so, “it is necessary for us not to attempt to deliver a scientific verdict by a set date, but, we should try to carry out research and the discussion that accompanies it in the most open manner, taking into account all the various opinions, so that all competent specialists would have the broadest access to researching the remains”, he said. “The main thing is that the results of these studies must be understandable and credible to all people”, Fr Vsevolod emphasised. He expressed the hope “that such results will be achieved, that they will be accepted by the public, and that they would erase all existing doubts, and that this would occur in the near future”.  

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25503 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

The authenticity of the remains has been challenged by Maria Vladimirovna, the current pretender to the throne. She has no grounds for this claim, but, the Romanov pretenders are not known for their stability, in any case. She is of the Valdimirovichi branch, and that means she is of the line of K. R. and Ducky. They were traitors in the first revolution, so, she has no right to the throne in the eyes of many émigré Russians. In any case, in his last sentence, Fr Vsevolod is signaling that the announcement of the final results is near, and, then, Maria Vladimirovna shall be left holding the (empty) bag with her nicks about her ankles. Oh… it’s not the first time… it’s not going to be the last, either. Russia is better off without such a fool on the throne. Thank God, there’s Prince Michael of Kent.