All Romanov descendants will be invited to St Petersburg's 300th anniversary celebrations

All members of the Romanov family will be invited to attend the 300th anniversary celebrations of the northern capital. They will be offered a special programme, Ivan Artsishevsky, head of state protocol at the St Petersburg administration's external relations committee, told journalists on Wednesday.

By tradition, Romanov offsprings arrive in St Petersburg every year on July 17 to commemorate the family of the last Russian emperor Nicholas II . The emperor, his family and their four servants were executed in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918. In 1998 the remnants of the killed were buried at the Catherine side-chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the burial-vault of all Russian tsars since Peter the Great. The only missing remains are those of Alexander III's wife Maria Fedorovna, who is buried in Denmark.

On Wednesday a prayer service "for the saint royal sufferers" was performed in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, attended by Prince Dmitry Romanov and his wife.

Prince Romanov told journalists that July 17 was a special occasion for the Romanovs. He called on everybody to pray on that day "not only about the past, but also about the future of Russia so that it should become strong and powerful".