Not sure why they waited so long. Seems like a simple thing to do to help erode Putin's power base.
> Saint Petersburg is a major trade gateway, serving as the financial and industrial centre of Russia ...
> The Great Port of Saint Petersburg has three large cargo terminals, in Petrodvorerts, Kronstadt, and Lomonosov.
> The federal subject's Gross Regional Product as of 2016 was 3.7 trillion Russian rubles (or around US$70 billion), ranked 2nd in Russia, after Moscow ...
> In 2015, St. Petersburg was ranked in 4th place economically amongst all federal subjects of the Russian Federation, surpassed only by Moscow, the Tyumen and Moscow Region.
Easy to do, simple to achieve. No more Russians need to die.
> Saint Petersburg is a major trade gateway, serving as the financial and industrial centre of Russia ...
> The Great Port of Saint Petersburg has three large cargo terminals, in Petrodvorerts, Kronstadt, and Lomonosov.
> The federal subject's Gross Regional Product as of 2016 was 3.7 trillion Russian rubles (or around US$70 billion), ranked 2nd in Russia, after Moscow ...
> In 2015, St. Petersburg was ranked in 4th place economically amongst all federal subjects of the Russian Federation, surpassed only by Moscow, the Tyumen and Moscow Region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg#Economy
Maybe they took a lesson from Iran and are trying more aggressively to hit Russia in the economy.
Heck, if there's military administration in the region, they could carry out targeted assassinations given facial recognition.