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Today's paper. Last Updated: 05/29/2012

Spaniard Sheds His Blood To Claim Russian Throne

MADRID -- A Spanish prince who claims he is the sole heir to the Russian throne gave blood on Friday for DNA testing he hopes will prove he is the great-grandson of the murdered Tsar Nicholas II.


Prince Alexis d'Anjou de Bourbon-Conde, who lives in Madrid, claims he is the grandson of the tsar's third daughter Maria, who according to some researchers escaped the 1918 massacre in which the tsar, his wife and three daughters were killed.


Prince Alexis' DNA will be tested against that of Britain's Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's husband, who is related to the dead tsar's wife through his mother, a statement from Prince Alexis' spokesman Frank Peters said.


"Prince Alexis is undergoing DNA tests to prove once and for all that he is who he says he is -- the great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas II," Peters said.


"Irrefutable documentation in support of his claim from reliable sources such as the Vatican and governments of Europe are being studied by President Boris Yeltsin and the Commission of Investigation," the statement said.


The commission headed by Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Yury Yarov recently ended a 76-year-old mystery by concluding the tsar's youngest daughter Anastasia was among the five bodies found in the shallow grave in Yekaterinburg three years ago.


The Madrid tests will be carried out by a member of the Molecular Genetics Institute Pharma Gens SA.


Prince Alexis has also submitted locks of hair from his mother Olga-Beata and his grandmother for testing.


Peters said a Monarchists' Conference, the first in 76 years, was being held in Moscow this week and Prince Alexis had been put forward as the most likely heir to the throne.


"His Highness has no doubt whatsoever as to his Russian Imperial ancestry, otherwise he would not subject himself to the indignity and embarrassment of the tests proving him wrong," the statement said.




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