DNA tests confirm remains of Russia’s murdered tsar are genuine

Fresh DNA tests have confirmed that the exhumed remains of Russia’s murdered Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, are genuine. Samples from his jaw bone and a vertebra match DNA from a bloody shirt he wore in a previous assassination attempt, investigators said. The DNA from his skull, which had not previously undergone testing for ethical reasons, also matches that of other bones tested earlier. The finding brings closer the possibility that the entire Romanov family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918 – could be laid to rest together with full rites.

These samples revealed heteroplasmy – a rare genetic mutation that was present in (earlier) samples of Nicholas II

Russian Investigative Committee

The remains of Nicholas II, his wife and children, hastily buried in the provincial city of St Petersburg, are disputed by the Russian Orthodox Church and some of the family’s descendants. The remains were exhumed in September at the request of the church to confirm their authenticity. The latest tests corresponded with earlier findings and showed that the remains were genuine, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement. However, it will now exhume the remains of Tsar Alexander II, Nicholas’s grandfather who was assassinated in 1881, for further proof. The tests pave the way for two of the murdered children, Nicholas’s heir Alexei and his daughter Maria, whose remains were found separately in 2007 and are stored in the state archive, to be buried with the rest of their family.

The Church will weigh all the information we have and take its decision in good time

Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin

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