Ra Ra Rasputin, Lover of the russian queen...

If Niko the 2nd's name and face didn't gave off his cuck vibes, his wife regularly wrote him and remimnded to follow what this charlatan said. Rasputin became a secret architector of russian elites and there were no easy way to join higher ranks if you weren't accepted by him. Some uneducated man just came in, gambled big, and took the palace by himself and his bullshit, while infantile insects like Niko and his surroundings just went with that.

Reading on that I grew to be sympathetic towards people who shot down his family. Not kids, probably, but I doubt they could be better than their mom and dad. If not shooting, but chaining them is what every russian patriot at that time should've been doing.