Governor of Saint Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko said that Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Federation Council of Russia, had become the senator of the city, RIA Novosti reports.
Poltavchenko got 79.3% of votes at the off-year governor elections on September 14. Besides Matviyenko, he had two other candidates: Lyudmila Verbitskaya, the president of the Russian Education Academy, and Vladimir Vasilyev, the rector of the ITMO University, the head of the Council of Rectors of Saint Petersburg.
