'Romanov returns': After 100 years, aristocrats assemble for royal wedding in Russia

After a century, Russia’s descendants of the czarist Romanov dynasty, which was in power in 1613 held a traditional wedding with aristocrats flocking the ceremony at the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral in Russia’s former imperial capital city. The groom Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov belongs to the former royal family and his mother Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna is the self-proclaimed heiress to the Russian imperial throne. The royal family ruled Russia until 1917 before the establishment of the communist state after Vladimir Lenin’s takeover. Czar Nicholas II, Czarina Alexandra, their five children were executed in 1918 in Yekaterinburg during the Bolshevik revolution but Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov's great grandfather Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich had moved to Finland in 1917. Moscow was later turned into the world’s first communist state.

Chaumet Diamond tiara, Fabergé wedding rings, World's kings and Queens as guests

Aristocrats from as far as Europe had travelled to Russia to attend the first-ever Royal wedding since 1917, Russian agencies reported. The 40-year-old Mikhailovich Romanov, born in Spain and educated in UK’s Oxford wedded his Italian bride, 39-year-old Rebecca Virginia Bettarini at Saint Isaac's cathedral in the former Russian imperial capital of Saint Petersburg in an Orthodox Christian ceremony. The bride wore a  diamond tiara designed by the high-end jeweller based in Paris, Chaumet, and first converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. The couple exchanged the Fabergé wedding rings, and a banquet by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin known as ‘Putin’s chef’ was arranged for the latter. The latter is on the United States FBI ‘wanted’ list for the 2016 election meddling for former US President Donald Trump. 

[Credit: Instagram/@rebecca_bettarini]

“Czarist trappings included an engagement ring traditionally exchanged in the House of Romanov," according to a press release obtained by the agency NPR. "The ring centers a ruby cabochon gemstone that represents love and nobility and two diamond brilliants that represent purity and strength.”

Russia’s ultra-conservative movement was on showcase, as nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin told the agency that it was the wedding that marked the remembrance of “eternal Russia of sacred czars and patriarchs and (the) church.” 

Royals from more than 20 countries had arrived in Russia to bear witness to the rare two-day affair which included Queen Sofia of Spain, Princess Leia of Belgium, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, brother of the Emir of Qatar. Guests also included the last king of Bulgaria, Simeon II, the last king of Egypt and Sudan, Fuad II, and Princess Lea of Belgium, sources told RTE. On the 1,500 guest list were other prominent names like Konstantin Malofeyev, a monarchist and billionaire close to the Kremlin, and Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. While there is no legal monarch status for the family since Russia’s assumed communist regime, the wedding was large “the pinnacle of their attempts to re-establish themselves in the country’s public life,” notes New York Times.