Recent press reports in Russia that Sir Elton John and David Furnish were planning a wedding in St. Petersburg have been strenuously denied by the singer’s representatives in London.

Sir Elton and Furnish on December 5, 2005 formally gave notice that they would be registering a civil partnership. The notice was given at the Registrar’s office in Maidenhead. The British press was reporting on December 6, 2005 that the registration ceremony was likely to take place in Windsor.

First news that the couple were planning a ceremony in Russia first surfaced on the day Sir Elton arrived in the country for a charity event. Konstantinovski Palace in St. Petersburg was even mentioned as the venue and that the singer was using his trip as an opportunity to negotiate for the use of the palace for a lavish “wedding reception”.

Robert Key, director of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, categorically denied that Sir Elton had any plans for a ceremony or reception in St. Petersburg, after the Russian reports surfaced at the weekend in the British press, including The Independent.

Elton and David have always said that the registration ceremony was going to be a strictly family occasion with just their parents present.

After the news first appeared in the Russian media, the nationalistic liberal democratic party deputy of the State Duma (lower house of Russian parliament), Nikolai Kuryanovich said that he will not allow a wedding of the famous singer Elton John and his friend in St. Petersburg. And the remarks were made without any apparent checking of facts.

He said that he had made an official request to the Russian minister of culture asking that a stop was made to the wedding. In his request he said: “Elton John should find a more relevant place for the wedding in the perverted and dieing Western Europe – there are many such places there”.

The deputy also said that the civil partnerships registrations, which became legal on December 5, 2005 in Britain “marked the end of the British Empire”.

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