Ex-governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko has been elected Speaker of the Federation Council. The voting for the candidate for the post of the Speaker has been held today, within the first autumn session of the Federation Council.

        Matvienko was nominated to this post on the initiative of President Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian senators gave 140 votes in her support with one abstention, the necessary number of votes for passing was 84.

      Matvienko was the only candidate for the Upper House Speaker post. For this position she surrendered her powers as the St. Petersburg governer and was elected a senator of the Federation Council, as a representative from the St. Petersburg government. Then she was able to take part in elections for the Speaker.

      The post of the Speaker was vacated after the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg had recalled its representative Sergei Mironov, who had been in chair almost for 10 years.

      Russian President Dmitry Medveded said that the election of a woman for one of the senior posts in Russian Government would help the country to become more up-to-date and to diversify the political life in Russia. 

Source: Lenta.ru ITAR-TASS

Related News: St. Petersburg Receives its New Governor (1.09.2011)

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