Russia's Norilsk appoints tsar's 'heir' as advisor

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM), the world's biggest producer of nickel and palladium, said on Friday it had appointed the self proclaimed heir to Russia's imperial throne as an advisor.

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov will advise the company on matters including a contest against a European Commission decision to classify some nickel compounds as hazardous substances, Norilsk said in a statement.

George Mikhailovich is the son of Maria Vladimirovna, the leading claimant to the Russian imperial throne. Her grandfather was Grand Duke Cyril Vladimorovich of Russia, who was cousin to the last tsar, Nicholas II.

George Mikhailovich was born in 1981 in Madrid.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by David Cowell)