Russia's northern capital of St. Petersburg is to bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, local media reported on Monday.

"We will bid for the Games. This will boost the development of the city," Valentina Matviyenko, mayor of the second largest city of Russia said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio.

St. Petersburg has once bid for the 2004 Summer Olympics, but failed to be listed as one of the five candidate cities.

Matviyenko first spoke of the possibility of a bid by St. Petersburg for the 2020 Olympics after the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi won its bid for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

"If not in 2020, then certainly by the time of the next Games," RIA Novosti quoted her as saying in a previously interview.

The Summer Olympics were last held in Russia in 1980 in Moscow, but the event was marred by a US-led boycott involving more than 60 countries.

News source: Chinadaily.com.cn
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