LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Russia does not want and should not seek a return
to the monarchy, a direct descendant of the last tsar said in an interview
published on Tuesday.
Prince Nicholas Romanov, the great-great-grandson of Emperor Nicholas I,
attended the emotion-charged burial last month of the tsar and his family
exactly 80 years after they were shot dead by Bolshevik revolutionaries.
But he does not believe in a return to the past.
Prince Nicholas, who now lives in Switzerland, told Hello Magazine on return
from the funeral: "Personally if there was a referendum tomorrow, I don't think
it (the monarchy) would get more than a five percent vote in favour.
"The monarchist movement there is motivated by petty politicians promoting
their ideas."
He felt that a return to the monarchy now would not be useful. "We should
remain quite calm and cool and wait. The country has to pull itself together and
recover its economic strength."
The prince urged his compatriots to look forward, not back.
"I have always said that not only were we burying the tsar and those who
died with him, but we were also burying the most bloodstained pages of our past.
Leave them to scholars. Russiansshould look forward."
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