The national program "Vklyuchis!" ("Get Involved"), whose aim is to attract youth to take part in the elections through organization of rock concerts and disco nights, will stage two events in St Petersburg on December 15.
A rock concert organized in cooperation with TACIS (the European Union's Technical Assistance to the CIS group) will feature three local rock acts including the revived 1980s ska band Straniye Igry (Strange Games) and Spitfire, their younger counterparts who mix ska with hardcore punk.
The event will be headlined by the popular act Dva Samolyota, who play pop relying heavily on world beat and sing in a self-invented nonsensical language.
A second event, a 12-hour disco, will be held on the same day in the LenExpo Center, the city's biggest dance hall, which can contain 2,000 people.
The organizers have set entrances fee for both events as low as possible to make them affordable to students.
The program, which now operates in 29 Russian regions, has been modeled after the United States' "Rock the Vote" campaign, which attracted 600,000 young people who would might not otherwise have voted, encouraging them to take part in the presidential elections in 1992.
The program's St Petersburg representative, Terenty Meshcheryakov, chairman of the Young Voters' Association, said, "If we attract at least 1,000 young people in St Petersburg, it would be good.
"We can work step by step -- we have the presidential elections ahead, the Legislative Assembly elections, the elections for the mayor, and so on," he added.
The "Vklyuchis!" program has been devised by the Russian Federation's Central Election Committee. It also includes a weekly national TV show, media advertising and the establishment of a national union of young voters.