Romanov heir to wed in Russia a century after revolution

Saint Petersburg, Oct 1 (AFP/APP):Russia on Friday was to hold its first royal wedding since the 1917 Bolshevik revolution toppled the Romanov monarchy, with royals from across Europe expected at the lavish ceremony.
Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov, 40, and his Italian fiance Rebecca Virginia Bettarini, 39, will say their vows at the Saint Isaac’s cathedral in the former imperial capital Saint Petersburg in the presence of dozens of royals.

Hundreds of foreign guests travelled to the second city for the religious ceremony, including Queen Sofia of Spain, Prince Rudolph and Princess Tilsim of Liechtenstein, and the former king and queen of Bulgaria.
Romanov said that the couple chose the city as the venue for tying the knot because it was the first place in the country where the family returned in the early 1990s.

“It is very, very close to our family,” he told the Saint Petersburg-based news website Fontanka ahead of the wedding.
Saint Petersburg is “the history of Russia,” he added, “the history of the House of Romanov.”

Born in Madrid, Romanov is the son of Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, the self-proclaimed heir to Russia’s imperial throne.
She is the granddaughter of Grand Duke Kirill, a cousin of Nicholas II, the last Russian tsar who was executed along with his wife and five children by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

The family was canonised by the Orthodox Church in 2000 as martyrs.
Romanov, who graduated from Oxford and spent much of his life in France, met Bettarini in Brussels, where he worked in the European Parliament.
Bettarini converted to the Orthodox faith last year and changed her name to Victoria Romanovna.

Romanov also held jobs at Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel before moving to Russia three years ago.
The couple first lived in the Moscow suburbs before relocating to the city center next to the Kremlin.

Now Romanov works on several charity projects.
Romanov said he believes European and Russian royals could help Moscow and the West mend fraying ties. “I think that we can be ambassadors of goodwill.”