The dominant feature of St. Petersburg will be the Gazprom skyscraper

Moscow/Saint Petersburg - The new landmark of Saint Petersburg, the former capital of Tsarist Russia, will be the 403-meter tall skyscraper of Gazprom. Despite public protests, objections from the Ministry of Culture, and warnings from UNESCO, the local government unanimously approved the decision that will change the skyline of the historic city by 2016.
    "All legal issues have been resolved strictly in accordance with the law," today's press quotes the statement from Saint Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko and ironically notes that local regulations prohibit the construction of new buildings taller than one hundred meters. However, the governor and the head of the state gas monopoly, Alexey Miller, who have been lobbying for the skyscraper since 2005, ultimately achieved their goal.
    The structure, made of glass, concrete, and steel, is expected to cost 60 billion rubles (approximately 34 billion CZK). Originally, the costs were to be covered by the Saint Petersburg city hall as a bonus for relocating the oil company Gazpromneft along with tax revenues to the city above the Neva, but due to the crisis, the state monopoly took on the costs, even as it currently faces a decline in gas prices and exports of this commodity.
    According to the newspaper Kommersant, the construction, which disrupts the historical development, poses a risk of Saint Petersburg being removed from the UNESCO World Heritage list. The "concerns of the scientific and creative community" are also shared by the Ministry of Culture and the Heritage Protection Office. The local opposition and the architects' union also intend to challenge the city hall's decision. "It seems that the land under the future skyscraper lies in some other country," declared union chief Andrey Bokov, who considers the project "unnecessary and extremely risky."
    Opponents claim that the building will ruin the picturesque skyline of canals and baroque palaces. Next to the giant tower, the Peter and Paul Fortress or the Smolny Palace will reportedly look like pyramids on a children's sandbox. Supporters of the project argue that the construction site is not located in the historic center of the city, founded by Tsar Peter the Great, but about half a kilometer away. Moreover, they claim the city lacks an architectural work that embodies the recent economic boom.
    In any case, the architects of the project remain indifferent to the objections. "Gazprom, whose other name could be ‘Enterprise Russia,’ offers unlimited opportunities to satisfy the ambitions of its executives regardless of any economic, political, or aesthetic obstacles," wrote the newspaper Vedomosti.