Foreign desk: Russia’s Last Czar Still Hasn’t Found Peace

Russia’s relationship with its history is being haunted by the remains of Nicholas II, its last czar and “the victim of Vladmir Lenin’s dictatorial regime,” says Maxim Trudolyubov at The Russia File. President Vladimir Putin reportedly “would like to organize a symbolic ceremony that would bring closure to Russia’s divisive and bloody twentieth century” with reburial of the last two members of the royal family. But the Russian Orthodox Church, “Putin’s main domestic political ally,” refuses to recognize the remains. That’s blocking a reconciliation between modern Russians and an “oppressive state that once wanted everyone to march into the future by shedding the shackles of religious belief and now wants everyone to stride back into the past by putting on the heavy garments of the old faith of the fathers.”