George was born in Madrid in 1981, the son of Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia and her husband Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia,. George was baptised on 6 May 1981, in Madrid; his godfather is Constantine II of Greece. Also present at the baptism were King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía of Spain and Simeon II and Queen Margarita of Bulgaria. George was given the title Grand Duke of Russia by his maternal grandfather, prompting Prince Vasili Alexandrovich, then president of the Romanov Family Association, to respond in writing that "The Romanov Family Association hereby declares that the joyful event in the Prussian Royal House does not concern the Romanov Family Association since the newborn prince is not a member of either the Russian Imperial House or of the Romanov family". In anticipation of his eventual succession as pretender and with his maternal grandfather's approval, his mother applied for a change of name with the French authorities as "Grand Duke George of Russia" instead of "Prinz von Preußen". His father, who stopped using his Russian title after his separation, has said of his son, "I have his German passport right here; I always carry it with me. It says he is Prince George of Prussia". George spent the first years of his life in France before moving to Spain. There he and his mother lived, along with his maternal grandmother, in the home of his maternal aunt, Helen Kirby, who inherited a significant fortune from her father, Sumner Moore Kirby.
Education and career
George was educated at Runnymede College in Madrid, D'Overbroeck's College, Oxford and at St Benet's Hall, Oxford. In Brussels, he worked at the European Parliament where he was an assistant to Loyola de Palacio, former European Commissioner for Transport and Energy. Later he moved to Luxembourg where he was employed at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Atomic Energy and Security. On 12 December 2008, he was appointed an aide to the Director General of MMC Norilsk Nickel, a major Russian nickel-mining company. In 2012 he was nominated chief executive of Metal Trade Overseas, the main sales hub for Norilsk Nickel in Switzerland. In 2014 he started his own company, Romanoff & Partners, in Brussels.
Heir to his mother
On 21 April 1992, upon the death of his maternal grandfather Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich, George's mother claimed to have succeeded as the sovereign and Curatrix of the Throne of Russia, making him, to supporters of his mother, heir-apparent and tsesarevich. He visited Russia for the first time shortly thereafter to attend the funeral of his grandfather. His claim to the throne is contested, for reasons detailed in the article on the line of succession to the Russian throne. In 1996, when he, his mother, and his grandmother Leonida returned to Russia after living in Madrid, one of President Boris Yeltsin's former bodyguards was assigned as tutor to the 15-year-old prince. He was also set to study at a Russian Naval college but these plans were dropped. On 17 July 2018 he participated, along with his mother, in the liturgical commemoration of the centenary of the assassinations of Saints Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and their children conducted in Yekaterinburg by Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow.
