from Interfax - 02 January 2008

Moscow, January 2, Interfax - Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, the head of the Russian Imperial Family, has pledged to continue seeking the rehabilitation of the imperial family in her home country, and said she will not hurry to turn to international courts.

"I will continue seeking the rehabilitation of my relatives until justice triumphs. But I will only do so in my homeland. I could ask international courts to provide a legal assessment of the procedural violations of my rights, regrettably committed by the Russian judiciary, and I will decide in due time whether or not I will. But the imperial family and my other relatives must be rehabilitated precisely in Russia," Maria Vladimirovna said in an interview with Interfax.

She said "prominent European and American lawyers" had informed her that, "this case could have good prospects if referred to international courts." "I told all of them it would be just senseless to use external pressure in handling this deeply Russian issue," she said

"The denial of rehabilitation to the imperial martyrs is, of course, a political, not law-based decision. There is no doubt that the imperial family and all other executed members of the Imperial House must be rehabilitated in accordance with the law," Maria Vladimirovna also said.

"Certain political forces, nostalgic about the totalitarian past and still nursing the dream of revenge, could stand behind the denial of rehabilitation," she went on to say.

"We must try to save all the good created in the Soviet period. But crimes must be officially condemned, or we'll have no guarantees that terror will not be repeated," Maria Vladimirovna said.