All news

Matviyenko unanimously re-elected as Federation Council speaker

Valentina Matviyenko ITAR-TASS/Sergey Karpov
Valentina Matviyenko
© ITAR-TASS/Sergey Karpov

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. Russian senator from the city of St. Petersburg Valentina Matviyenko was unanimously re-elected for the post of Speaker of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) on Wednesday.

As many as 141 members of the upper house voted for her candidacy in a secret vote.

Matviyenko’s re-election is caused by the fact that St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko, whom she represented in the upper house, was re-elected as city governor on September 14. Immediately after the inauguration, he signed a decree on Matviyenko’s repeated delegating as his representative in the upper house.

The Federation Council regulations stipulate that an upper house member vested with these powers again keeps performing powers of an official until the upper house decides to replace the specific position.

Upper house lawmaker Valery Ryazansky proposed Matviyenko’s candidacy, which was the only one nominated by members of the upper house to this post.

Valentina Matvienko represents the city of St. Petersburg in the Federation Council since August 31, 2011. Before this, she had worked as the governor of the Russian northern capital for eight years.