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Romanovs bless
Medvedev after Russian vote win
The self-declared heir to Russia's imperial throne on
Thursday congratulated Dmitry Medvedev on his election win and urged the future
Kremlin leader to fulfill Russia's destiny as a great world power.
Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, the leading claimant
to the Russian imperial throne, sent a congratulatory telegram to Medvedev,
Alexander Zakatov, head of the chancellery of Russia's self-styled Imperial
House, told Reuters.
Medvedev, a 42-year-old former lawyer, is set to become
the youngest Russian leader since the last Tsar, Nicholas II, who he says he
admires. He will be officially sworn in May, though he has already moved to the
Kremlin.
"You take up the rule of the Russian state at an
historical stage when it has overcome atheism and inhuman totalitarianism, then
withstood the inevitable shocks after the collapse of the old system and way of
living," the Grand Duchess wrote.
Russia, she said, had renewed confidence in its destiny
as a truly great world power based on traditional values, public welfare, the
protection of rights and freedoms, the defense of national interests and an
active role in international affairs.
The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for 300 years before
Nicholas II abdicated in 1917, setting Russia on course for the Bolshevik
Revolution, civil war and 70 years of Communist rule.
The Bolsheviks killed Nicholas, his younger brother,
Grand Duke Michael, and most of their close family in 1918, though some
Romanovs escaped to Europe, where they kept up opposition to Soviet rule.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, scores
of tiny monarchist groups emerged but none have garnered widespread support.
Kremlin opponents such as Communist leader Gennady
Zyuganov say Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin have
themselves ruled like tsars, with enormous powers and few limits to their
authority.
Putin says his greatest achievement has been to bring
stability after the chaos of the 1990s. Medvedev has said he will appoint
Putin, a former KGB spy, as his prime minister.
"May God shed on you the wisdom, strength and will
to preserve, consolidate and multiply all the good that was achieved with the
great nationwide effort over the past years," Maria Vladimirovna, who
lives in Spain, told Medvedev.
She called on Medvedev to "overcome the hardships
and woes that have not yet been eradicated".
Putin
was sent similar congratulations when he won election as Russian president,
Zakatov said.”
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