Valentina Matvienko to seek capital functions for St. Petersburg

Valentina Matvienko who, according to the preliminary data, is winning the gubernatorial election in St. Petersburg, considers seeking capital functions for St. Petersburg to be a quite realistic task.

"I will continue pursuing the line of seating one of the power branches in St. Petersburg," Matvienko said at a briefing on Monday. She also expressed the hope that the solution of this question would not take long.

Asked by journalists about her successor at the post of the plenipotentiary representative in the North-Western federal district, Matvienko noted that she would discuss this question with the president of Russia. "As a governor, I am not indifferent as to who will be the plenipotentiary representative", she said.

Matvienko stressed that, in her opinion, today the plenipotentiary representations can be to a greater extent oriented to the questions of socioeconomic development of the region. She believes that the plenipotentiary representations could ensure co-ordination, distribution of investment areas, and interaction between regions in forming a common market.