ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Aug. 26 -- Students in Russia's St. Petersburg will be able to choose Chinese for their foreign language test in their graduation exams in the upcoming academic year, an official said Wednesday.

"Interest in studying Chinese is great here," Natalia Tretyak, Russian deputy minister of education and science, was quoted as saying by local media.

St. Petersburg schools join the experiment because there is a traditional interest in learning the Chinese language in the city, Tretyak said, adding that the Chinese language has become the second most popular foreign language among Russian students after English.

Tretyak also indicated that Moscow and Russia's Far Eastern region are also looking forward to participating in the experiment project.

In Russia, students have to take a foreign language test for graduation. This year, Tretyak said, about 67,000 students have passed the tests in various foreign languages throughout the country, which opened doors to universities for them.