A density functional based first principles study of the metal to ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) states of [Ru(bpy)3]2+ is presented. The method used in this study includes first-order electrostatic multiplet splitting as well as spin-orbit interaction. The results obtained show that there is an important mixing of the excited singlet and triplet states. These first principles results are in good overall agreement with the observed absorption spectra, with respect to both the spread of the excitation energies and the positions of the strong, unambiguously assigned peaks. Our calculation finds the lowest excited states to be virtually degenerate A1 and E spin-orbit components of the (dpi:a1) --> (pi*:a2) 3A2 State, the former lying a few 10-cm-1 units below the latter one. The next excited triplet, i.e. (dpi:e) - (pi*:a2) 3E, arises only roughly 1500 cm-1 above the 3A2.