President Dmitry Medvedev has backed Valentina Matviyenko, the increasingly unpopular St. Petersburg governor, as the new speaker of the Federation Council in what one State Duma deputy called “an exotic but logical” development. Matviyenko’s appointment, which some politicians embraced as a done deal over the weekend, would make her the first female speaker of either house of parliament and put her second in line to the presidency, […]