At the beginning of September 2008 a new sea port opens at Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg. The tour operators believe this will turn the local cruise industry upside down. The new port will be used for cruise liners while the existent one will function for cargo purposes.
      
      “We could organize cruises from St. Petersburg long time ago but right now only the old port functions and this creates a lot of barriers, for instance, passing through the customs – it is considered a strategic object and passing it requires going through a long bureaucratic procedure. The new port will have a civil object status. As soon as it opens, we will start organizing cruise programmes from St. Petersburg”, as the cruise industry representatives note.
      
      Source - news.turizm.ru