I don't know if he was close with Kyrill, but he became a Grand Duke during Kyrill's "reign" (not literally of course, he just claimed to be the reightful heir/tsar), but if they got along well I wouldn't be surprised that Kyrill "paid" him back with the title. Certainly Gavril had no legal right as far as I know, no more than the rest, anyway, but since there was no real tsar to nominate new Grand Dukes, I frankly doubt of the validity of his title. Comments please?