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Investigators point to authenticity of Russian royal family’s remains

Russian investigators resumed criminal proceedings into the slaying of members of the Romanov Imperial Family

Russian Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra in Crimea in 1909 ITAR-TASS/Fotokhronika TASS

Russian Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra in Crimea in 1909

© ITAR-TASS/Fotokhronika TASS

MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Forensic studies point to authenticity of the remains of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, research will continue, spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told TASS on Wednesday.

"Research again indicates authenticity of the ‘Yekaterinburg remains," he said.

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Markin noted that "research would continue." "To obtain highly reliable final conclusion on the identification of the skulls experts will carry out research on the genetic systems. Comparisons with the first-degree relatives will also be made, including with the traces of blood from the clothes of Emperor Alexander II," he added.

Earlier this autumn, the Investigative Committee resumed criminal proceedings into the slaying of members of the Romanov Imperial Family that was initially instituted in 1993 after the finding of a collective burial site near Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk) in the Urals, which contained the bones supposedly of Nicholas II, his spouse Empress Alexandra and their children.

The remains of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra were exhumed from their tombs in the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul in St Petersburg at the end of September. In addition to that, samples of blood traces were taken from the clothes of Emperor Alexander II that he was wearing during the assassination on March 1, 1881.

The Russian Orthodox Church believes positive findings of these forensic studies will provide an incontestable proof of the genuineness of remains of the slain last Russian Czar and his family.

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