Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg
According to federal legislation from 2005, the governor of Saint Petersburg (as well as heads of other federal subjects of Russia) was proposed by the President of Russia and approved by the regional legislature. On 20 December 2006, incumbent Valentina Matviyenko was approved as governor.) In 2012, following the passage of a new federal law, which restored direct elections of the heads of federal subjects, the city charter was again amended. The Assembly consists of fifty seats and is elected for a five-year term. The first three convocations were formed by a single-member district plurality voting system with at least 20% participation required (except for the 1994 elections with their changing participation threshold), two-round for the first and second convocations and single-round for the third one. On March 11, 2007, the fourth elections were held using a party-list proportional representation system with a 7-percent election threshold and no required threshold of participation for the first time according to the new city law accepted by the third convocation of the assembly in 2006 and new federal legislation. Elections to the 2011 legislative assembly were held in St. Petersburg at the same time as the 2011 Duma elections (4 December) and like these provoked accusations of fraud. In the event the 50 seats were distributed as follows
United Russia 20; 
A Just Russia 12;
Communist Party 7; 
Yabloko 6; 
Liberal Democratic Party (Zhironovsky) 5.
St.Petersburg therefore was ahead in the national swing against Putin’s ‘party of power’ which had been defined by one of the opposition leaders, Alexei Navalny, as ‘the party of crooks and thieves’. In the weeks following the elections sanctioned and unsanctioned popular protests were held in St. Petersburg against the Duma elections and those for the Legislative Assembly. The opposition called for the annulment of the elections on the grounds of widespread fraud and called for elected candidates to reject their mandates. The election was hold along with Federal State Duma elections on September 17, 18, and 19, 2021. While non-systemic opposition was largely eliminated from the elections, those candidates (mostly of systemic opposition) who were allowed to participate were targeted by various semi-legal intimidation or confusion techniques. The one includes "doppelganger candidates", where a person of similar look and surname was put on the same ballot in order to confuse voters. A remarkable case of , a candidate of the Yabloko party, who run in the №2 Saint Petersburg circuit with two nearly indistinguishable doppelgängers alongside was widely reported. Both have changed their legal names to "Boris Vishnevsky" shortly before the elections, and returned to their original names shortly after it was finished. Initially it was the speaker of the Assembly who served as member of the Federation Council of Russia representing the legislative power body of this federal subject. However, in 2000 the federal legislation changed and the duties were delegated to a separate person to be elected by the regional legislature (not necessarily among its members). Since June 13, 2001, Sergey Mironov has occupied this position until 18 May 2011. References
History
The Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg () is the legislative body of Saint Petersburg, a federal subject of Russia. Its powers and duties are defined in the Charter of Saint Petersburg.