The paper analyzes the prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms among the population of Saint Petersburg on the basis of the results of the main stage of the epidemiological survey RESearch on the PrEvalence and the diagnosis of COPD and its Tobacco-related etiology (RESPECT) conducted in 2012—2013. Objective — to assess the prevalence and pattern of chronic respiratory symptoms among Saint Petersburg dwellers aged 35 to 70 years and the association with age- and gender-related characteristics, smoking status, and comorbidities. Material and methods. This was a cross-sectional survey covering a total of 3500 dwellers aged 35 to 70 years, attached to the General Practitioner Departments of 10 Saint Petersburg polyclinics, who had been randomly selected from the database of the Territorial Compulsory Health Insurance Fund. Results. It was found that 43.2% (95% CI, 41.1—45.4) respondents complained about at least one chronic respiratory symptom (95% CI, 41.1—45.4). The prevalence of chronic cough, sputum production, and dyspnea was 17.5% (95% CI, 15.9—19.1), 12.5% (95% CI, 11.1—13.9), and 35.1% (95% CI, 33.1—37.2%), respectively. There was a significant rise in the prevalence of chronic cough and chronic sputum production with increasing number of pack-years of smoking and in that of dyspnea as the pack-years increased up to more than 15 (p<0.01). There was a significant relationship of a number of respiratory symptoms to concomitant diseases: chronic cough and sputum production to the historical evidence of hypertension (p<0.01) and dyspnea to other non-respiratory diseases (p<0.05).