The following was announced (in part) in Russia on the evening of April 1, 2008:
"Today the Armed Forces Identification Laboratory in the USA could not answer the question that was sent from Russia: whether the remains found last summer near Ekaterinburg belonged to Nikolai II's children.
Following the difficulty of the work the American geneticists have stated that the extraction of DNA from the obtained samples was not possible.
.... Now the American scientists say that these fragments are not suitable for research, as they are too small and in bad condition.
In spite of the result from the University of Massachusetts ...."
Translation and information provided by Margarita Nelipa © [for A. P. Forum members]
I'll try to explain this. ...
I also gather that the Russians and another US laboratory (UMass?) were able to extract DNA from their samples -
No DNA was able to be extracted from either of the 3 samples received by the University of Massachusetts.
In spite of (irrespective of) this result (at the University of Massachusetts) the work will continue with other samples.
Trust this is more clear.
Margarita Nelipa
Thanks, Margarita. I appreciate your taking the time to clarify this issue.
There may be a misunderstanding here that needs to be corrected.
The tests being done at the AFIP and the tests being done in the lab at the University of Massachusetts are *not* the same tests.
The samples collected from Ekaterinburg in November by Dr. Anthony Falsetti from which the AFIP in Rockville, Maryland has been unable to extract DNA are not the same samples as those now being tested at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester, Massachusetts by the Russian DNA scientist Dr. Evgeny Rogaev... who is only making use of the fact that he has access to the university lab in Worcester because he works as a professor both in Moscow *and* at the University of Massachusetts.
JK
