Saint Petersburg is outside of Russia.
Russia . Russia 's capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world ; other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan . Saint Petersburg ( [ Санкт-Петербу ́рг , a = Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg , r = Sankt-Peterburg , p = ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk ] ) is Russia 's second-largest city after Moscow , with five million inhabitants in 2012 , and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea . Between 1713 and 1728 and in 1732 -- 1918 , Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia . Saint Petersburg is one of the modern cities of Russia , as well as its cultural capital .