Valentina Matviyenko to stand for upper house speaker

St. Petersburg governor Valentina Matviyenko has agreed to stand for the post of speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, RIA Novosti reports.

Her decision comes after the Federation Council’s longtime speaker Sergei Mironov was ousted by the ruling United Russia party.

"Matviyenko will hold all the necessary talks with the Federation Council and begin to undertake all the necessary procedures to be elected into the upper house," Natalya Timakova, the spokeswoman for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, told reporters on Tuesday.