Russian church throws Tsar's burial into chaos

those clamouring for the reburial of the remains of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, in the hope of closing a painful and divisive chapter in Russia's history face profound disappointment

Just over a month before the bones of the Tsar and members of the imperial family are to be interred in St Petersburg, the ceremony shows no sign of offering a shred of - as psychologists put it - "closure" to this disorientated society.

The Russian Orthodox Church has ruled that neither Patriarch Alexy II, nor any bishop may attend the event. The Kremlin has indicated that, in the absence of the head of the Church, Boris Yeltsin is also unlikely to take part in the ceremony on 17 July, the 80th anniversary of the execution of the Tsar and his family by a Bolshevik firing squad in Yekaterinburg.

Relatives of the imperial family are divided over whether to attend, but the most senior member, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, has said she may not. Anxious that that a display of regal pomp and circumstance might deepen social tensions among millions of impoverished Russians (many of them Communist voters), the authorities in St Petersburg say less than $2m will be spent on the event.

"What started as an attempt to find reconciliation has turned into another source of division," said Lawrence Uzzell, an expert on Russian Orthodoxy with the Keston Institute in Britain.

"It looks as if it is going to leave a sour taste in everybody's mouth. No one is going to be happy."

The church's decision is ostensibly because of doubts over the authenticity of the bones. Despite positive DNA tests carried out in Russia, Britain and the United States, some clergymen remain unconvinced. They regard the issue as crucial, as the church is considering canonising the Tsar. If he is granted sainthood - and Russian ecclesiastical opinion over this is also divided - the bones would become holy relics. A mistake would be disastrous. "We would be venerating false relics," said one senior churchman, Metropolitan Yuvenali. "That would be a great sacrilege."

Matters are also complicated by the existence of other relics purporting to be Romanov remains, which are venerated by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad - the church-in-exile during Soviet times. Admitting the authenticity of the bones soon to be buried in St Petersburg means acknowledging their own relics are phoney.

The church will, however, play some role in the Tsar's reburial. Bishops may be absent, but a priest will still officiate at the service in St Petersburg's Peter and Paul Cathedral. The synod has decided to hold fasts and prayers in churches across the country - though it has emphasised that this will be to mark the murder of the Romanovs, not their reburial. A statement will be read out to worshippers stressing the church's desire for accord.

This has not deterred Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow who lobbied for the bones to be buried in the Russian capital. A likely contender to succeed Mr Yeltsin, he has condemned St Petersburg's reburial plans as "too meagre". "This ceremony will not be accepted by Russia," he declared this week.