Russians Reinstate Romanov Royal Family - the Last Tzar is a New Ztar

MORE than nine decades after a Bolshevik execution squad gunned down the last tsar of Russia and his family, the country's supreme court has declared the imperial dynasty victims of political repression, marking the official rehabilitation of the house of Romanov.

The decision overturns a lower court ruling that classified the killings as plain murder, and exonerates Tsar Nicholas II and his family of the alleged crimes the Bolshevik regime used to justify their killing.

A spokesman for the supreme court said it "had declared as groundless the repression said it "had declared as groundless the repression of Tsar Nicholas and his family and rehabilitated them".

Tsar Nicholas, who ruled the massive Russian empire as an absolute monarch, died when he, his wife, Alexandra, and their five children were shot without trial in the town of Yekaterinburg, eight months after the October revolution of 1917.

Their descendants, who have been trying for years to get the authorities to acknowledge that the family was executed for political reasons, welcomed the court's ruling.

A spokesman for Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, who led the campaign to rehabilitate the royal family, said she had "expressed her joy and satisfaction after the decision".

Alexander Zakatov, the head of the chancellery of Russia's self-styled Imperial House, said: "It was very important for our society that the crime committed 90 years ago was condemned, and that unfair accusations against the tsar and members of his family, that they were enemies of the people…should be removed.

"We have achieved victory. The law has been carried out and now we can draw a line under this with great satisfaction and happiness."