Government

urther information: Politics of Saint Petersburg and Administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg

The Smolny Institute, seat of the governor

The city assembly meets in theMariinsky Palace

Saint Petersburg is a federal subject of Russia (a federal city).^[54] The political life of Saint Petersburg is regulated by the Charter of Saint Petersburg adopted by the city legislature in 1998.^[55] The superior executive body is the Saint Petersburg City Administration, led by thecity governor (mayor before 1996). Saint Petersburg has a single-chamber legislature, the Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly which is the city's regional parliament.

According to the federal law passed in 2004, heads of federal subjects, including the governor of Saint Petersburg, were nominated by thePresident of Russia and approved by local legislatures. Should the legislature disapprove the nominee, President could dissolve it. The former governor, Valentina Matviyenko, was approved according to the new system in December 2006. She was the only woman governor in the whole of Russia until her resignation on August 22, 2011. Matviyenko stood for elections as member of the Regional Council of Saint Petersburg and won comprehensively with allegations of rigging and ballot stuffing by the opposition. Russian PresidentDmitry Medvedev has already backed her for the position of Speaker to the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and her election qualifies her for that job. After her resignation, Georgy Poltavchenko was appointed as the new acting governor the same day. In 2012, following passage of a new federal law,^[56] restoring direct elections of heads of federal subjects, the city charter was again amended to provide for direct elections of governor.^[57]

Saint Petersburg city is currently divided into eighteen districts. Saint Petersburg is also the unofficial but de facto administrative centre ofLeningrad Oblast, and of the Northwestern Federal District.^[58] The Constitutional Court of Russia moved to Saint Petersburg from Moscow in May 2008.

Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, being two different federal subjects, share a number of local departments of federal executive agencies and courts, such as court of arbitration, police, FSB, postal service, drug enforcement administration, penitentiary service, federal registration service, and other federal services.