The other Princess and a very tricky dilemma ...
LET the new royal princess sleep. An older one, Princess Michael of Kent, 70, claims our attention again. She faces a tricky problem. As David Jones reported in the Mail at the weekend, Marie-Christine must decide how to respond to a family’s request that she help explain the murder three years ago of their son, Russian furniture mogul Mikhail Kravchenko.
He was a special friend of the Princess. In 2006, she was photographed walking hand-in-hand with Kravchenko, 21 years her junior, in Venice.
Three men have since been convicted of his shooting, but Kravchenko’s family want to know why he was a target. Was the crime part of a plot to control their £500 million furniture business?
Plainly, Marie - Christine and widower Kravchenko were close. They were booked into adjoining, £ 2,500- a- night suites at Venice’s Cipriani hotel, where they spent four days riding in gondolas, dining in restaurants and strolling hand-in-hand.
Afterwards, it was said their meeting was to discuss a joint business opportunity. As for their lovey-dovey appearance, Marie - Christine declared: ‘I hold hands with all my friends. I’m a very tactile person.’
Kravchenko’s parents received a two-page letter from the Princess following the death of their son, whose killers are due to be sentenced on May 15. They believe a personal appeal by her could have the murder inquiry re-opened.
Their l awyer, Karen Nersisyan, told the Mail: ‘We think it would be appropriate for Princess Michael to do this, taking into account that she and Mikhail used to be such close f riends, and that she is a person with enormous status. Such petitions are quite normal in Russia and I’m quite confident, given how highly she is regarded in my country, that it would work.’
Kravchenko’s mother, Galena, said: ‘ The Princess has great authority here and she is a big friend of our family. I hope she will not ignore our appeal.’
PRINCESS Michael can’t intervene in the Kravchenko case without the danger that it would renew speculation about her friendship with him. Now he’s dead, perhaps that’s not a big issue. She has already endured speculation about their friendship.
But might her husband, Prince Michael, be more influential in the Russian courts? He is a Russian speaker with many influential friends there. They might be more impressed that the husband of Kravchenko’s royal friend is pressing for the case to be re-opened.
Prince Michael has given no sign that he took umbrage over the speculation about Marie-Christine and Kravchenko. He is a man of the world with friends of the opposite sex outside of their marriage.
At the time the Venice pictures appeared, an American artist and socialite called Lucy Weber confided that she was a longtime chum of the Prince. Emphasising that she was more discreet than Marie-Christine, she added: ‘When he came to visit me, I’d make sure it wasn’t on a day the gardener was due.’
A fascinating affair. The Kents are an eccentric couple, even by the Royal Family’s high standards. Perhaps only a Leo Tolstoy (War And Peace) could do justice to the story of Marie-Christine’s friendship with the doomed Kravchenko.