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10/02/2008: "Russia admits massacre of the Tsar and his family was a Bolshevik crime"

The problem that has concerned the Russian courts for the best part of a decade has been: was it a simple murder committed by a few out of control revolutionaries, or was it ordered from above as a political assassination? Again and again, courts have dodged out of admitting that the Bolshevik state was responsible.

But the Russian Supreme Court ruled yesterday - much to the surprise of Romanov descendants - that the killing was a political act and that the Tsar's family should be considered victims of Bolshevism.

"The presidium declared as groundless the repression of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and rehabilitated them," said Pavel Odintsov, of the Russian Supreme Court.

[ This is one of the most reassuring signs yet of the strengthening of nationalism in Russia. ]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4863837.ece