The impacts of globalization on St. Petersburg: A secondary world city in from the cold?

Abstract

St. Petersburg has not been successful in overcoming a large number of social and economic obstacles inherited from its Soviet past. St. Petersburg is missing an important set of pre-conditions that are critical to attain a level of global interaction required to be considered for secondary city status in a semi-peripheral country. Only the city’s cultural activities appear to qualify the city for world city status. As long as Russia itself remains “stuck in transition,” world city status for St. Petersburg will remain elusive.