Meeting with Governor of St Petersburg Alexander Beglov

In his remarks, Alexander Beglov Beglov AlexanderGovernor of St Petersburg pointed out that 2025 marked the 60^th anniversary of the decision to bestow the Hero City title on St Petersburg. The Governor went on to say that as of January 1, there were 37,159 Leningrad Siege survivors living in the city. The Siege of Leningrad by Nazi troops lasted for 872 days, from September 8, 1941, until January 27, 1944. Recognising the siege as a war crime was a major milestone, the Governor emphasised. A court ruling designated these crimes as acts of genocide. In addition to this, 2025 was also the first time Russia marked the newly established Day of Military Glory on August 9, which marks the end of the Battle of Leningrad in 1944.

The Governor said that national projects offered a platform for outlining ten development priorities for St Petersburg until 2030. He elaborated on several of these projects, including efforts to improve the transport carcass within the metropolitan area formed by St Petersburg and parts of the Leningrad Region, as well as construction of the high-speed railway linking St Petersburg and Moscow, building the Bolshoi (Big) Smolensky Draw Bridge, a student yacht club on the Petrovskaya Kosa, which will be open to students from various higher education institutions, as well as a high-speed tramway line to the Kupchino-Slavyanka District where a lot of new housing is being built. The Governor also mentioned new metro stations, efforts to address shortcomings and deficits affecting social infrastructure, including building schools and kindergartens, and developing the so-called technology valleys in collaboration with universities.

The meeting's agenda also covered healthcare, elderly care, assistance to families with many children, and environmental matters such as building recycling plants and reducing the number of landfills by a factor of ten. The conversation also touched upon efforts to preserve the historical heritage and support culture.

The Governor said that he viewed taking care of families and supporting special military operation participants as one of his core objectives. This includes helping these people adapt, training them and offering them housing. The city has created an online platform titled Back to Civilian Life for this purpose.

In addition, Alexander Beglov talked about helping to rebuild Mariupol in the Donetsk Region. The Russian Theatre of Drama was restored there after nationalists from Azov, a Ukrainian terrorist organisation, bombed it on March 16, 2022. The Mariupol - City of Military Glory monument was unveiled there. Projects to build schools and kindergartens are advancing, and the second tramway line has entered the design phase. Over the past few years, more than 8,500 children spent their holidays in St Petersburg's recreational camps, including during the winter school break.