RIA Novosti reports that METALLICA will play Russia in 2010, the head of a tour organizer group said Thursday.

"These concerts will be held next year. We want to take the band to the opening of a new stadium in St. Petersburg when its construction is finished, and arrange a concert in Moscow's Olimpiysky [sport complex]," Nadezhda Solovyova, who heads SAV Entertainment and Russky Show-Center, said.

METALLICA's last concert in the Russian capital was in the Luzhniki Stadium on their "Sick of the Studio 2007" tour, where the band performed in front of some 60,000 fans along with 3,000 security officials.

"We have already arranged a stadium concert — now we want to do something new. We want to arrange a concert for the entire Olimpiysky with a circle in the middle. They have a specially designed project for such a stage," Solovyova said.

Before the 2008 visit to St. Petersburg and the 2007 visit to Moscow, the band had played in the country only once, at a rock festival in 1991.