ST. PETERSBURG, August 22 (Itar-Tass) —— St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko filed a request for early resignation as governor on Monday.
“I filed my resignation to the president and the request for resignation was already passed to the presidential executive office,” she told reporters on Monday.
Matviyenko won a landslide victory at the elections in two municipal districts in St. Petersburg, where she was running for a municipal mandate. She gained 93.71% of votes at the Petrovsky district and 94.5% in the Krasnenkaya Rechka district, according to the election returns passed in the Central Election Commission on Monday. Matviyenko decided to take a deputy mandate in the Krasnenkaya Rechka municipal district, the press service of the St. Petersburg government told Itar-Tass on Monday.
Matviyenko gained a deputy mandate of the Krasnenkaya Rechka municipal district, from which she can be elected as a senator of the Federation Council. The senators already pledged to elect Matviyenko as speaker of the upper house of parliament.
Under the Russian legislation the United Russia faction, which has a majority in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, is to present to the president the list of candidates for governorship. Then the president will choose a candidate, which will be put up for voting in the parliament of the Russian northern capital for the post of governor.
Earlier Speaker of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Vadim Tyulpanov said with confidence that a new governor will be appointed within a week after the early resignation of Valentina Matviyenko. “As soon as Valentina Matviyenko resigns as St. Petersburg governor, United Russia will offer at least three candidates to the president. I believe that a legitimate governor can be appointed within a week,” the speaker underlined.