St Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko has accepted the speaker’s seat in the Federation Council following three days of ‘waffling‘ and a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev; the news was apparently welcomed by St Petersburg bloggers, who have been rooting for Matviyenko to leave her governor post.  Or, as Yulia Latynina puts it, ‘The voters can’t stand her. Every day she spent as St. Petersburg governor meant hundreds of voters turning their backs on United Russia.‘  The Russian envoy to Africa is calling for an end to violence in Syria, saying that ‘leaders come and go‘ and indicating that Moscow will support ‘the Syrian people‘ regardless of who rules them.  North Korea and Russia have abandoned plans to hold talks this week, possibly due to a failure to lessen their differences regarding the agenda.