Tsar Harry?

Some two billion people across the world may have been watching the Royal Wedding on Friday between Prince William and Kate Middleton.

And it seem some Russians were watching their televisions, green with envy - because now a leading former diplomat believes that Prince Harry - the third in line to by British monarch - should be offered the vacant throne.

Alexander Baunov - a diplomat-turned-journalist - thinks that William's 26-year-old brother should be crowned the first king of Russian since Tsar Nicholas II reigned in 1917 on the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution.

'Let him receive parades, make visits, give dinners and offer New Year congratulations,' demanded Mr Baunov.

It would, in his eyes, 'delight [Russians] like never before' to have the monarchy restored, following a groundswell of Russian enthusiasm over the Royal Marriage in London, when Harry played a starring role as best man.

The prince could perform a symbolic role as head of state - allowing the increasingly fractious Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, currently premier and president respectively, to concentrate on politics and running the country, said Mr Baunov.

He said: 'We have no Royal Weddings, and I don't see anything good about this.

'All our court life revolves around overweight MPs, untalented singers and graduates from TV reality shows.

'Looking at the wedding and its preparations in England, I think that it would be good to restore the monarchy here.'

Russia's absolute monarchy was abolished in 1917 following the abdication of Nicholas II, who was subsequently shot alongside his family, ushering in seven decades of Communist rule.

While there is currently no undisputed claimant to the defunct Romanov throne, Mr Baunov points out that Harry has plenty of royal Russian blood coursing through his veins.

He continued: 'His great great grandmother was the great duchess Olga Konstantinovna Romanov.

'Moreover, King George V [who ruled from 1910-36] was a cousin of our Tsar Nicholas II, so the British princes are his distant nephews.'

Olga, granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I and cousin of Tsar Alexander III, was Queen of Greece, and is the paternal grandmother of Prince Philip.

Mr Baunov suggested that it would be easy to find an attractive Russian bride and to make Harry the symbolic Tsar with his throne in the Kremlin palace.

He said restoring the monarchy would bring back quality to Russian high society.

The former Foreign Ministry official evidently suggested creating Tsar Harry to start a debate in Russia, where there is traditionally little support for restoring the monarchy, and to mock the current rulers.

One backer, physicist Nikita Govorun said: 'They've got Prince Henry spare still. Shall we marry him to some Russian Cinderella, swear allegiance to him, and we will live happily every after like they do in England?

'Let him be not Henry or Harry, but Igor the First.'

And one online poll this week found 39 per cent support for a constitutional monarchy, compared with 24 per cent for the current democratic republic, and 12 per cent for a communist state.

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