He is a claimant to the defunct throne of the Russian Empire, held until 1917 by the Imperial House of Romanov, as a grandson of Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna (1907–1951), eldest child of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, who claimed the Russian crown from exile in 1924. He is a great-great-grandson of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and grand nephew of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia. In 2013, the Monarchist Party of Russia declared him the primary heir to the Russian throne upon his conversion from Lutheranism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and in 2014 announced the formation of the "Imperial Throne", wherein Karl Emich had agreed to assume imperial dignity as "Emperor Nicholas III".