An American DNA laboratory test confirmed that the remains recently found outside Yekaterinburg are of the children of the last Tsar, St Nikolai II Aleksandrovich, Sverdlovsk oblast Governor Eduard Rossel said. “Now, we have found the entire family”, Mr Rossel told a press conference on Wednesday. It was reported earlier that parts of two human bodies bearing signs of a violent death were found during excavations outside Yekaterinburg on the old Koptyakovskoy Road in July 2007. Preliminary findings indicated that the remains could have been those of a teenager aged from 10 to 14 and a 20-year-old woman. It was assumed that the remains could have been those of Tsarevich St Aleksei, the heir to the throne and only son of the last Russian Tsar, Nikolai II, and Grand Princess Maria, one of the daughters of the tsar, who were executed outside Yekaterinburg in 1918.
The analysis of the remains was assigned to the Sverdlovsk regional forensic medical expert bureau, a Moscow laboratory, the US Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, and the University of Massachusetts’ genetic laboratory. The experts from the Sverdlovsk bureau reached a preliminary conclusion based on anatomic and morphological analysis that took into account personal, gender, and age factors that there was “a high level of probability that the remains are those of Tsarevich Aleksei and Grand Princess Maria”. Human remains found outside Yekaterinburg in July 1991 were later identified as those of Tsar St Nikolai II, some of his family, and members of the royal retinue. The remains were buried at the Ss Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg on 17 July 1998.
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Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra to give a concert at the Moscow Conservatory
Sir SImon Rattle (1955-) conducting the Berlin Philharmonic
The world-famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle shall give a concert at the Moscow Conservatory this evening. On the playbill are Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, Beethoven’s SeventhSymphony, and the First Violin Concerto by Max Bruch with the virtuoso Russian violinist Vadim Repin playing the solo. The concert will be broadcast live by Euro Art television, the Russian Kultura TV channel, and the ARD channel in Germany.
Renowned Russian film director Eldar Ryazanov awarded the Order of Honour, Georgia’s top civil award
Eldar Ryazhanov (1927-), Honoured Artist of Russia, famous cinematographer
The renowned Russian film director Eldar Ryazanov accepted the Order of Honour, Georgia’s top civil award, from Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in Tbilisi. In his speech at the ceremony, the Georgian leader praised the master’s outstanding contribution to Russian and world cinema, saying that people of many generations had been brought up on his films Carnival Night, OfficeRomance, and many others. A retrospective of Ryazanov’s films, among them his latest work, Andresen: Life without Love, is currently under way in Tbilisi.
“The Days of Russian Spiritual Culture” shall be held in Latin America this year
Moscow Patriarchate Choir, Anatoly Grindenko (1950-), director
“The Days of Russian Spiritual Culture” shall be held in Latin America later this year. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced this in Moscow on Wednesday, speaking at a reception celebrating Orthodox Easter. “The Days of Russian Spiritual Culture” is organised by the Foreign Ministry and the Moscow Patriarchate. Exhibitions, concerts, and meetings with compatriots living in Latin America shall be organised within the programme’s framework. Mr Lavrov mentioned that Russia proposed the establishment of a consultative council on religions under the auspices of the UN to promote the settlement of confessional differences.
Film by the Russian director Andrei Zviagintsev wins an award at the European Film Festival
Adam and Eve Expelled from the Garden (Pavel Popov, 1994?)
A film by the Russian director Andrei Zviagintsev, The Banishment, won an award for the best script and camerawork at the European Film Festival in Lecce, in the south of Italy. A parable based on the biblical story of Adam’s and Eve’s expulsion from heaven, the film centres on the man-woman relationship regardless of nationality or location. As acknowledged by the director himself, human psychology and family relations are much more appealing as topics than social or political problems.
More than 400,000 people visit a Russian art exhibition in London
More than 400,000 people visited a Russian art exhibition that closed recently in London. The nine halls of the Royal Academy of Arts displayed 120 masterpieces of Russian and French paintings covering the period from 1870 to 1925, all of which came from famous collections in Moscow and St Petersburg, including the Hermitage, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the Russian Museum, and the Tretyakov Gallery.
Mariinsky Theatre of St Petersburg wound up its three-week tour of New York with six programmes
The Mariinsky Opera and Ballet Theatre of St Petersburg wound up its three-week tour of New York with six programmes of 18 one-act ballets and fragments from classical productions to a full house at Lincoln Center in New York City. In addition, the American viewers saw Sergei Prokofiev’s opera The Gambler. The Mariinsky’s artistic director, Valery Gergiev, described the tour as a mini-festival, for it’s quite rare that the ballet and opera companies go on tour to one place simultaneously. In a megalopolis such as New York, he said, programmes by the Mariinsky company have sparked widespread interest and the newspapers published daily reports of the concerts.
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