Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov says a commission set up to investigate human remains believed to be those of Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family, has concluded the remains are genuine, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

"It can be solemnly declared that the remains under study belong to the family of Nicholas II and even the greatest sceptics should have no more doubts," Nemtsov said.

The commission will hold its final session on 27th January, he added.

Nemtsov said he planned to meet the Russian Orthodox leader, Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and all Russia, in a few days to discuss matters related to the burial of the royal family.

He said answers will be given to almost all questions put forward by the Russian Orthodox Church in the context of the identification and burial of the remains.

Tsar Nicholas

"After the last commission session we will clearly sum up all the existing data, the opinion of relatives of Nicholas II - he has 200 relatives, by the way - and submit all this information with our wishes concerning the place and time of burial to the president," Nemtsov said.

President Yeltsin will make the final decision on the time and place of the burial.

"I greatly hope that the burial will take place this year," Nemtsov said.

The Tsar and his family were executed in 1918 by the Bolsheviks in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Their bones were dug up in 1991.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
 

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