President of St. Petersburg State University passes away

President of the St. Petersburg State University Lyudmila Vetbitskaya has died at the age of 83, a university spokesman said.

"Regrettably, Verbitskaya died today," TASS cited the spokesman as saying,

Verbitskaya was St. Petersburg State University’s rector in 1994-2008 and its president since 2008. She was President of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL) and President of the Russian Academy of Education. In 2017, she received a prize of the International Federation of Language Teacher Associations.