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Russia

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Countries; European
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   SOS Children works in Russia. For more information see SOS Children in
   Russia
                Российская Федерация
   Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
   Russian Federation

   Flag of Russia Coat of arms of Russia
   Flag           Coat of arms
   Motto: none
   Anthem: Hymn of the Russian Federation
   Location of Russia
   Capital
   (and largest city)     Moscow
                          55°45′N 37°37′E
     Official languages   Russian, many others in component republics
   Government             Semi-presidential
                          federal republic
    - President of Russia Vladimir Putin
    - Prime Minister      Mikhail Fradkov
        Independence      from the Soviet Union
    - Declared            June 12, 1991
    - Finalized           December 25, 1991
                                 Area
    - Total               17,075,400 km² ( 1st)
                          6,592,800 sq mi
    - Water (%)           13
                              Population
    - 2006 estimate       142,400,000 ( 7th)
    - 2002 census         145,164,000
    - Density             8.3/km² ( 209th)
                          21.8/sq mi
         GDP ( PPP)       2005 estimate
    - Total               $1.576 trillion ( 10th^1)
    - Per capita          $11,041 ( 62nd)
        HDI  (2003)       0.795 (medium) ( 62nd)
          Currency        Ruble ( RUB)
         Time zone        ( UTC+2 to +12)
    - Summer ( DST)       ( UTC+3 to +13)
        Internet TLD      .ru ( .su reserved)
        Calling code      +7
   ^1 Rank based on April 2006 IMF data.

   Russia (Russian: Росси́я, Rossiya; pronounced [rʌ'sʲi.jə]), also the
   Russian Federation (Russian: Росси́йская Федера́ция, Rossiyskaya
   Federatsiya; pronounced [rʌ'sʲi.skə.jə fʲɪ.dʲɪ'ra.ʦɪ.jə], listen ), is
   a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Eurasia. With an area
   of 17,075,400 square kilometres, it is the largest country in the world
   by land mass, covering almost twice the territory of the next-largest
   country, Canada. It has the world's eighth largest population. Russia
   shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise
   from NW to SE): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
   Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and
   North Korea. It is also close to the United States and Japan across
   relatively small stretches of water.

   Formerly the dominant republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist
   Republics (USSR), Russia is now an independent country and an
   influential member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, since the
   Union's dissolution in December 1991. During the Soviet era, Russia was
   officially called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
   (RSFSR). Russia is considered the Soviet Union's successor state in
   diplomatic matters. The National Holiday of Russia is celebrated on
   June, 12

   Most of the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet
   Union, then one of the world's two superpowers, lay in Russia. After
   the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia's global role was greatly
   diminished compared to that of the former Soviet Union. In October
   2005, the federal statistics agency reported that Russia's population
   has shrunk by more than half a million people dipping to 143 million,
   although Russia became the second country in the world by the number of
   immigrants from abroad.

History

Ancient Rus

   Prior to the Christian Era, the vast lands of Southern Russia were home
   to un-united tribes, such as Proto-Indo-Europeans and Scythians.
   Between the third and sixth centuries Common Era, the steppes were
   overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions, led by warlike
   tribes which would often move on to Europe, as was the case with Huns
   and Turkish Avars. A Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled South Russia
   through the eighth century. They were important allies of the Byzantine
   Empire and waged a series of successful wars against the Arab
   Califates.
   An approximative map of the cultures in European Russia at the arrival
   of the Varangians
   Enlarge
   An approximative map of the cultures in European Russia at the arrival
   of the Varangians

   The Early East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western
   Russia from the seventh century onwards and slowly assimilated the
   native Finno-Ugric tribes, such as the Merya, the Muromians and the
   Meshchera. In the mid-ninth century, a group of Scandinavians, the
   Varangians, assumed the role of a ruling elite at the Slavic capital of
   Novgorod. Although they were quickly assimilated by the predominantly
   Slavic population, the Varangian dynasty lasted several centuries,
   during which they affiliated with the Byzantine, or Orthodox church and
   moved the capital to Kiev in AD 882.

   In this era, the term "Rhos" or " Rus" first came to be applied to the
   Varangians and later also to the Slavs who peopled the region. As well
   as one of the rulers who contributed to the name "rus" [...] In the
   tenth to eleventh centuries this state of Kievan Rus became the largest
   in Europe and one of the most prosperous, due to diversified trade with
   both Europe and Asia. The opening of new trade routes with the Orient
   at the time of the Crusades contributed to the decline and
   fragmentation of Kievan Rus by the end of the twelfth century.

   In the eleventh and twelfth centuries common era, the constant
   incursions of nomadic Turkish tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the
   Pechenegs, led to the massive migration of Slavic populations from the
   fertile south to the heavily forested regions of the north, known as
   Zalesye. The medieval states of Novgorod Republic and Vladimir-Suzdal
   emerged as successors to Kievan Rus on those territories, while the
   middle course of the Volga River came to be dominated by the Muslim
   state of Volga Bulgaria.

   Like many other parts of Eurasia, these territories were overrun by the
   Mongol invaders, who formed the state of Golden Horde which would
   pillage the Russian principalities for over three centuries. Later
   known as the Tatars, they ruled the southern and central expanses of
   present-day Russia, while the territories of present-day Ukraine and
   Belarus were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland,
   thus dividing the Russian people in the north from the Belarusians and
   Ukrainians in the west.

   Similarly to the Balkans and Asia Minor, long-lasting nomadic rule
   retarded the country's economic and social development. However, the
   Novgorod Republic together with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy
   during the time of the Mongol yoke and was largely spared the
   atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Alexander
   Nevsky, the Novgorodians repelled the Germanic crusaders who attempted
   to colonize the region.

Muscovy

   Unlike its spiritual leader the Byzantine Empire, Russia under the
   leadership of Moscow was able to revive and organized its own war of
   reconquest, finally subjugating its enemies and annexing their
   territories. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Muscovite Russia
   remained the only more or less functional Christian state on the
   Eastern European frontier, allowing it to claim succession to the
   legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire.

   While still under the domain of the Mongol- Tatars and with their
   connivance, the duchy of Moscow began to assert its influence in
   Western Russia in the early fourteenth century. Assisted by the Russian
   Orthodox Church and Saint Sergius of Radonezh's spiritual revival,
   Muscovy inflicted a defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of
   Kulikovo (1380). Ivan the Great eventually tossed off the control of
   the invaders, consolidated surrounding areas under Moscow's dominion
   and first took the title "grand duke of all the Russias".

   In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Russian state set the
   national goal to return all Russian territories lost as a result of the
   Tatar invasion and to protect the southern borderland against attacks
   of Crimean Tatars and other Turkic peoples. The noblemen, receiving a
   manor from the sovereign, were obliged to serve in the military. The
   manor system became a basis for the nobiliary horse army.

   In 1547, Ivan the Terrible was officially crowned the first Tsar of
   Russia. During his long reign, Ivan annexed the Muslim polities along
   the Volga River and transformed Russia into a multiethnic and
   multiconfessional state. By the end of the century, Russian Cossacks
   established the first settlements in Western Siberia. In the middle of
   the seventeenth century there were Russian settlements in Eastern
   Siberia, on Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, on the Pacific
   coast, and the strait between North America and Asia was first sighted
   by a Russian explorer in 1648. The colonization of the Asian
   territories was largely peaceful, in sharp contrast to the build-up of
   other colonial empires of the time.

Imperial Russia

   Muscovite control of the nascent nation continued after the Polish
   intervention of under the subsequent Romanov dynasty, beginning with
   Tsar Michael Romanov in 1613. Peter the Great (ruled in) defeated
   Sweden in the Great Northern War, forcing it to cede Ingria, Estland,
   and Livland. It was in Ingria that he founded a new capital, Saint
   Petersburg. Peter succeeded in bringing ideas and culture from Western
   Europe to a severely underdeveloped Russia. After his reforms, Russia
   emerged as a major European power.

   Catherine the Great, ruling from 1762 to 1796, continued the Petrine
   efforts at establishing Russia as one of the great powers of Europe.
   Examples of its eighteenth-century European involvement include the War
   of Polish Succession and the Seven Years' War. In the wake of the
   Partitions of Poland, Russia had taken territories with the ethnic
   Belarusian and Ukrainian population, earlier parts of Kievan Rus'. As a
   result of the victorious Russian-Turkish wars, Russia's borders
   expanded to the Black Sea and Russia set its goal on the protection of
   Balkan Christians against a Turkish yoke. In 1783, Russia and the
   Georgian Kingdom (which was almost totally devastated by Persian and
   Turkish invasions) signed the treaty of Georgievsk according to which
   Georgia received the protection of Russia.

   In 1812, having gathered nearly half a million soldiers from France, as
   well as from all of its conquered states in Europe, Napoleon invaded
   Russia but, after taking Moscow, was forced to retreat back to Europe.
   Almost 90% of the invading forces died as a result of on-going battles
   with the Russian army, guerillas and winter weather. The Russian armies
   ended their pursuit of the enemy by taking his capital, Paris. The
   officers of the Napoleonic wars brought back to Russia the ideas of
   liberalism and even attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the
   abortive Decembrist revolt (1825), which was followed by several
   decades of political repression. Another result of the Napoleonic wars
   was the incorporation of Bessarabia, Finland, and Congress Poland into
   the Russian Empire.

   The perseverance of Russian serfdom and the conservative policies of
   Nicholas I of Russia impeded the development of Imperial Russia in the
   mid-nineteenth century. As a result, the country was defeated in the
   Crimean War, 1853–1856, by an alliance of major European powers,
   including Britain, France, Ottoman Empire, and Piedmont-Sardinia.
   Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–1881) was forced to undertake a
   series of comprehensive reforms and issued a decree abolishing serfdom
   in 1861. The Great Reforms of Alexander's reign spurred increasingly
   rapid capitalist development and Sergei Witte's attempts at
   industrialization. The Slavophile mood was on the rise, spearheaded by
   Russia's victory in the Russo-Turkish War, which forced the Ottoman
   Empire to recognize the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro
   and autonomy of Bulgaria.

   The failure of agrarian reforms and suppression of the growing liberal
   intelligentsia were continuing problems however, and on the eve of
   World War I, the position of Tsar Nicholas II and his dynasty appeared
   precarious. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in the
   Russo-Japanese War and World War I, and the consequent deterioration of
   the economy led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the
   Russian Empire, and ultimately to the overthrow in 1917 of the
   Romanovs.

   At the close of this Russian Revolution of 1917, a Marxist political
   faction called the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd and Moscow
   under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. The Bolsheviks changed their
   name to the Communist Party. A bloody civil war ensued, pitting the
   Bolsheviks' Red Army against a loose confederation of anti-socialist
   monarchist and bourgeois forces known as the White Army. The Red Army
   triumphed, and the Soviet Union was formed in 1922.

Russia as part of the Soviet Union

   St. Basil's Cathedral and the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin in
   Moscow's Red Square.
   Enlarge
   St. Basil's Cathedral and the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin in
   Moscow's Red Square.

   The Soviet Union was meant to be a trans-national worker's state free
   from nationalism. The concept of Russia as a separate national entity
   was therefore not emphasized in the early Soviet Union. Although
   Russian institutions and cities certainly remained dominant, many
   non-Russians participated in the new government at all levels.

Lenin

Stalin

   One of these was a Georgian named Joseph Stalin. After Lenin's death in
   1924, a brief power struggle ensued, during which Stalin gradually
   eroded the various checks and balances which had been designed into the
   Soviet political system and assumed dictatorial power by the end of the
   decade. Leon Trotsky and almost all other Old Bolsheviks from the time
   of the Revolution were killed or exiled. At the end of 1930s, Stalin
   launched the Great Purges, a massive series of political repressions.
   Millions of people whom Stalin and local authorities suspected of being
   a threat to their power were executed or exiled to Gulag labor camps in
   remote areas of Siberia or Central Asia.

   Stalin forced rapid industrialization of the largely rural country and
   collectivization of its agriculture. In 1928, Stalin introduced his
   "First Five-Year Plan" for modernizing the Soviet economy. Most
   economic output was immediately diverted to establishing heavy
   industry. Civilian industry was modernized and many heavy weapon
   factories were established. The plan worked, in some sense, as the
   Soviet Union successfully transformed from an agrarian economy to a
   major industrial powerhouse in an unbelievably short span of time, but
   widespread misery and famine ensued for many millions of people as a
   result of the severe economic upheaval.

   After the Great Patriotic War started in 1941 the German army had
   considerable success in the early stages of the campaign, they suffered
   defeat when they reached the outskirts of Moscow. The Red Army then
   stopped the Nazi offensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, which
   became the decisive turning point for Germany's fortunes in the war.
   The Soviets drove through Eastern Europe and captured Berlin before
   Germany surrendered in 1945 (see Great Patriotic War). During the war,
   the Soviet Union lost more than 27 million [citizens] (including
   eighteen million [civilians]).

   Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict
   as an acknowledged superpower. The Red Army occupied Eastern Europe
   after the war, including the eastern half of Germany. Stalin installed
   loyal communist governments in these satellite states.

   During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and
   then expanded its economy, with control always exerted exclusively from
   Moscow. The Soviets extracted heavy war reparations from the areas of
   Germany under their control, mostly in the form of machinery and
   industrial equipment. The Soviet Union consolidated its hold on Eastern
   Europe (see Eastern bloc). The United States helped the Western
   European countries establish democracies, and both countries sought to
   achieve economic, political, and ideological dominance over the Third
   World. The ensuing struggle became known as the Cold War, which turned
   the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United
   States, into its foes.

   Stalin died in early 1953 presumably without leaving any instructions
   for the selection of a successor. His closest associates officially
   decided to rule the Soviet Union jointly, but the secret police chief
   Lavrenty Beria appeared poised to seize dictatorial control. General
   Secretary Nikita Khrushchev and other leading politicians organized an
   anti-Beria alliance and staged a coup d'état. Beria was arrested in
   June 1953 and executed later that year; Khrushchev became the
   undisputed leader of the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev

   Under Khrushchev, the Soviet Union launched the world's first
   artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, and the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
   became the first person to orbit the Earth. Khrushchev's reforms in
   agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive,
   and foreign policy toward China and the United States suffered
   reverses, notably the Cuban Missile Crisis, when he began installing
   nuclear missiles in Cuba (after the United States installed Jupiter
   missiles in Turkey which nearly provoked a war with the Soviet Union).
   Over the course of several angry outbursts at the United Nations,
   Khrushchev was increasingly seen by his colleagues as belligerent,
   boorish, and dangerous. The remainder of the Soviet leadership removed
   him from power in 1964.

   Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of rule by
   collective leadership ensued, lasting until Leonid Brezhnev established
   himself in the early 1970s as the pre-eminent figure in Soviet
   political life. Brezhnev is frequently derided by historians for
   stagnating the development of the Soviet Union (see " Brezhnev
   stagnation"). In contrast to the revolutionary spirit that accompanied
   the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing mood of the Soviet
   leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion
   to change.

Gorbachev

   In the mid 1980s, the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. He
   introduced the landmark policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika
   (restructuring), in an attempt to modernize Soviet communism. Glasnost
   meant that the harsh restrictions on free speech that had characterized
   most of the Soviet Union's existence were removed, and open political
   discourse and criticism of the government became possible again.
   Perestroika meant sweeping economic reforms designed to decentralize
   the planning of the Soviet economy. However, his initiatives provoked
   strong resentment amongst conservative elements of the government, and
   an unsuccessful military coup that attempted to remove Gorbachev from
   power instead led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin
   came to power and declared the end of exclusive Communist rule. The
   USSR splintered into fifteen independent republics, and was officially
   dissolved in December of 1991 (see History of the Soviet Union).

   Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic
   political system and a market economy to replace the strict centralized
   social, political, and economic controls of the Soviet era.

Post-Soviet Russia

   The National Holiday of Russia held on June,12, 2006 in the Red Square
   Enlarge
   The National Holiday of Russia held on June,12, 2006 in the Red Square

   Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin had been
   elected President of Russia in June 1991 in the first direct
   presidential election in Russian history. In October 1991, as Russia
   was on the verge of independence, Yeltsin announced that Russia would
   proceed with radical market-oriented reform along the lines of " shock
   therapy".

   After the disintegration of the USSR, the Russian economy went through
   a crisis. Russia took up the responsibility for settling the USSR's
   external debts, even though its population made up just half of the
   population of the USSR at the time of its dissolution. The largest
   state enterprises (petroleum, metallurgy, and the like) were
   controversially privatized for the small sum of $US 600 million, far
   less than they were worth, while the majority of the population plunged
   into poverty.

   Russia's Congress of People's Deputies, in which the Communist presence
   was the strongest, attempted to impeach Yeltsin on March 26, 1993.
   Yeltsin's opponents gathered more than 600 votes for impeachment, but
   fell 72 votes short. On September 21, 1993, Yeltsin disbanded the
   Supreme Soviet and the Congress of People's Deputies by decree, which
   was illegal under the constitution. On the same day there was a
   military showdown, the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993. With
   military help, Yeltsin held control. The conflict resulted in a number
   of civilian casualties, but was resolved in Yeltsin's favour. According
   to different sources, the total number of deceased was between 300 and
   2,000 people. Elections were held and the current Constitution of the
   Russian Federation was adopted on December 12, 1993.
   Modern Moscow
   Enlarge
   Modern Moscow

   The 1990s were plagued by armed ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus.
   Such conflicts took a form of separatist insurrections against federal
   power (most notably in Chechnya), or of ethnic/clan conflicts between
   local groups (e.g., in North Ossetia-Alania between Ossetians and
   Ingushs, or between different clans in Chechnya). Since the Chechen
   separatists declared independence in the early 1990s, an intermittent
   guerrilla war ( First Chechen War, Second Chechen War) has been fought
   between disparate Chechen groups and the Russian military. Some of
   these groups have grown increasingly Islamist over the course of the
   struggle. The total number of refugees and internally displaced persons
   from these territories today is about 100,000 people.

   After Yeltsin's presidency in the 1990s, the former head of the FSB
   Vladimir Putin was elected in 2000. Although President Putin is still
   the most popular Russian politician, with a 70% approval rating, his
   policies raised serious concerns about civil society and human rights
   in Russia. The West and particularly the United States expressed
   growing worries about the state control of the Russian media through
   Kremlin-friendly companies, government influence on elections, and law
   enforcement abuses.

   At the same time, high oil prices and growing internal demand boosted
   Russian economic growth, stimulating significant economic expansion
   abroad and helping to finance increased military spending. Putin's
   presidency has shown improvements in the Russian standard of living, as
   opposed to the 1990s .Even with these economic improvements, the
   government is criticized for lack of will to fight wide-spread crime
   and corruption and to renovate deteriorated urban infrastructure
   throughout the country.

   Despite the economic distress and decreased military funding following
   the fall of the Soviet Union, the country retains its large weapons and
   especially nuclear weapons arsenal.

Politics

   The politics of Russia (the Russian Federation) take place in a
   framework of a federal presidential republic, whereby the President of
   Russia is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform
   multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government.
   Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers
   of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

Administrative divisions

   Federal subjects

   Federal subjects of the Russian Federation
   Enlarge
   Federal subjects of the Russian Federation

   The basic subdivision of the Russian Federation is that of the federal
   subject. There are 88 federal subjects. Each federal subject is a
   constituent part of the federation.

   There are many different types of federal subject. There are 21
   republics within the federation that enjoy a high degree of autonomy on
   most issues and these correspond to some of Russia's numerous ethnic
   minorities. The other subjects consist of 48  oblasts (provinces) and
   7  krais (territories), as well as 9 autonomous okrugs (autonomous
   districts), and 1 autonomous oblast. Beyond these there are two federal
   cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg).

   Federal districts

   There are also seven large federal districts (four in Europe, three in
   Asia). These have been added as a new layer between the above
   subdivisions and the national level. Unlike the federal subjects, the
   federal districts are not as such a subnational level of government,
   but are a level of administration of the national government.

   See also

     * Federal districts of Russia
     * Economic regions of Russia
          + Federal subjects of Russia
               o Republics of Russia
               o Oblasts of Russia
               o Krais of Russia
               o Autonomous oblasts of Russia
               o Autonomous okrugs of Russia
               o Federal cities of Russia

Geography and climate

   Siberia
   Enlarge
   Siberia
   Kamchatka
   Enlarge
   Kamchatka

Topography

   The Russian Federation stretches across much of the north of the
   supercontinent of Eurasia. Although it contains a large share of the
   world's Arctic and sub-Arctic areas, and therefore has less population,
   economic activity, and physical variety per unit area than most
   countries, the great area south of these still accommodates a great
   variety of landscapes and climates. Russia is the coldest country in
   the world. The mid-annual temperature is −5.5°C (22° F). For
   comparison, the mid-annual temperature in Iceland is 1.2°C (34°F) and
   in Sweden is 4°C (39°F), although the variety of climates within Russia
   makes such a comparison somewhat misleading.

   Most of the land consists of vast plains, both in the European part and
   the part of Asian territory, that is largely known as Siberia. These
   plains are predominantly steppe to the south and heavily forested to
   the north, with tundra along the northern coast. The permafrost (areas
   of Siberia and the Far East) occupies more than half of the territory
   of Russia. Mountain ranges are found along the southern borders, such
   as the Caucasus (containing Mount Elbrus, Russia's and Europe's highest
   point at 5,642 m / 18,511 ft) and the Altai, and in the eastern parts,
   such as the Verkhoyansk Range or the volcanoes on Kamchatka. The more
   central Ural Mountains, a north-south range that form the primary
   divide between Europe and Asia, are also notable.

   Russia has an extensive coastline of over 37,000 kilometres (23,000 mi)
   along the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, as well as more or less inland
   seas such as the Baltic, Black and Caspian seas. Some smaller bodies of
   water are part of the open oceans; the Barents Sea, White Sea, Kara
   Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea are part of the Arctic, whereas
   the Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan belong to the
   Pacific Ocean.

   Major islands found in them include Novaya Zemlya, the Franz Josef
   Land, the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island, the Kuril Islands and
   Sakhalin. (See List of islands of Russia). The Diomede Islands (one
   controlled by Russia, the other by the United States) are just three
   kilometres (1.9  mi) apart, and Kunashir Island (controlled by Russia
   but claimed by Japan) is about twenty kilometres (12 mi) from Hokkaido.

   Many rivers flow across Russia; see Rivers of Russia.

   Major lakes include Lake Baikal, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega. See List
   of lakes in Russia.

Borders

   Map of the Russian Federation
   Enlarge
   Map of the Russian Federation

   The most practical way to describe Russia is as a main part (a large
   contiguous portion with its off-shore islands) and an exclave,
   Kaliningrad, (at the southeast corner of the Baltic Sea).

   The main part's borders and coasts (starting in the far northwest and
   proceeding counter-clockwise) are:
     * borders with the following countries: Norway and Finland,
     * a short coast on the Baltic Sea, facing eight other countries on
       its shores from Finland to Estonia and including the port of St.
       Petersburg,
     * borders with Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, and Ukraine,
     * a coast on the Black Sea, facing five other countries on its shores
       from Ukraine to Georgia,
     * borders with Georgia and Azerbaijan,
     * a coast on the Caspian Sea, facing four other countries on its
       shores from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan,
     * borders with Kazakhstan, China (western), Mongolia, China
       (eastern), and North Korea.
     * an extensive coastline that provides access to all the maritime
       nations of the world, and stretches
          + from the North Pacific Ocean including
               o the Sea of Japan (where the west shore of Russia's
                 Sakhalin lies),
               o the Sea of Okhotsk (where the east shore of Sakhalin and
                 its Kurile Islands lie), and
               o the Bering Sea,
          + through the Bering Strait (where its minor island of Big
            Diomede is separated by only a few miles from Little Diomede,
            a part of the US state of Alaska),
          + to the Arctic Ocean, including
               o the Chukchi Sea (where the south and east shores of its
                 Wrangel Island lie),
               o the East Siberian Sea (where its west shore, and the east
                 shores of its New Siberian Islands lie),
               o the Laptev Sea (where their west shores lie),
               o the Kara Sea (where the east shore of its Novaya Zemlya
                 lies),
               o the Barents Sea (where their west shore, the south shores
                 of its Franz-Josef Land the port of Murmansk and
                 important naval facilities lie, and where the White Sea
                 reaches far inland).

   The exclave, constituted by the Kaliningrad Oblast,
     * shares borders with
          + Poland to its south and
          + Lithuania to its north and east, and
     * has a northwest coast on the Baltic Sea.

   The Baltic and Black Sea coasts of Russia have less direct and more
   constrained access to the high seas than its Pacific and Arctic ones,
   but both are nevertheless important for that purpose. The Baltic gives
   immediate access to the nine other countries sharing its shores, and
   between the main part of Russia and its Kaliningrad Oblast exclave. Via
   the straits that lie within Denmark, and between it and Sweden, the
   Baltic connects to the North Sea and the oceans to its west and north.
   The Black Sea gives immediate access to the five other countries
   sharing its shores, and via the Dardanelles and Marmora straits
   adjacent to Istanbul, Turkey, to the Mediterranean Sea with its many
   countries and its access, via the Suez Canal and the Straits of
   Gibraltar, to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The salt waters of the
   Caspian Sea, the world's largest lake, provide no access to the high
   seas.

Spatial extent

   The two most widely separated points in Russia are about 8,000 km
   (5,000 mi) apart along a geodesic (i.e. shortest line between two
   points on the Earth's surface). These points are: the boundary with
   Poland on a 60-km-long (40-mi-long) spit of land separating the Gulf of
   Gdańsk from the Vistula Lagoon; and the farthest southeast of the
   Kurile Islands, a few miles off Hokkaido Island, Japan.

   The points which are furthest separated in longitude are "only"
   6,600 km (4,100 mi) apart along a geodesic. These points are: in the
   West, the same spit; in the East, the Big Diomede Island (Ostrov
   Ratmanova).

   The Russian Federation spans eleven time zones.

Largest cities

   Moscow
   Enlarge
   Moscow
   Saint Petersburg
   Enlarge
   Saint Petersburg
   Novosibirsk
   Enlarge
   Novosibirsk

   As of 2005 Russia has 13 cities with over a million inhabitants.
   Rank    City/town         Russian          Federal subject      Population
   1    Moscow           Москва          Moscow                    10,342,151
   2    Saint Petersburg Санкт-Петербург Saint Petersburg          4,661,219
   3    Novosibirsk      Новосибирск     Novosibirsk Oblast        1,425,508
   4    Nizhny Novgorod  Нижний Новгород Nizhny Novgorod Oblast    1,311,252
   5    Yekaterinburg    Екатеринбург    Sverdlovsk Oblast         1,293,537
   6    Samara           Самара          Samara Oblast             1,157,880
   7    Omsk             Омск            Omsk Oblast               1,134,016
   8    Kazan            Казань          Republic of Tatarstan     1,105,289
   9    Chelyabinsk      Челябинск       Chelyabinsk Oblast        1,077,174
   10   Rostov-na-Donu   Ростов-на-Дону  Rostov Oblast             1,068,267
   11   Ufa              Уфа             Republic of Bashkortostan 1,042,437
   12   Volgograd        Волгоград       Volgograd Oblast          1,011,417
   13   Perm             Пермь           Perm Krai                 1,001,653

Economy

   Map of the electric grid during the Soviet era.
   Enlarge
   Map of the electric grid during the Soviet era.

Introduction

   More than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
   Russia is now trying to further develop a market economy and achieve
   more consistent economic growth. Russia saw its comparatively developed
   centrally planned economy contract severely for five years, as the
   executive and the legislature dithered over the implementation of
   reforms and Russia's aging industrial base faced a serious decline.

Crash

   After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia's first slight recovery,
   showing signs of open-market influence, occurred in 1997. That year,
   however, the Asian financial crisis culminated in the August
   depreciation of the ruble. This was followed by a debt default by the
   government in 1998, and a sharp deterioration in living standards for
   most of the population. Consequently, 1998 was marked by recession and
   an intense capital flight.

Recovery

   Alexei Kudrin, Russian finance minister.
   Enlarge
   Alexei Kudrin, Russian finance minister.

   Nevertheless, the economy started recovering in 1999. The recovery was
   greatly assisted by the weak ruble, which made imports expensive and
   boosted local production. Then it entered a phase of rapid economic
   expansion, the GDP growing by an average of 6.7% annually in 1999–2005
   on the back of higher petroleum prices, a weaker ruble, and increasing
   service production and industrial output. The country is presently
   running a huge trade surplus, which has been helped by protective
   import barriers, and rampant corruption which ensures that it is almost
   impossible for foreign and local SMEs (small and medium sized
   enterprises) to import goods without the help of local specialist
   import firms, such as the Russia Import Company. Some import barriers
   are expected to be abolished after Russia's accession to the WTO.

   The recent recovery, made possible due to high world oil prices, along
   with a renewed government effort in 2000 and 2001 to advance lagging
   structural reforms, has raised business and investor confidence over
   Russia's prospects in its second decade of transition. Russia remains
   heavily dependent on exports of commodities, particularly oil, natural
   gas, metals, and timber, which account for about 80% of exports,
   leaving the country vulnerable to swings in world prices. Industrial
   military exports after undergoing sharp contraction is now the major
   non-commodity export. In recent years, however, the economy has also
   been driven by growing internal consumer demand that has increased by
   over 12% annually in 2000–2005, showing the strengthening of its own
   internal market.

   The economic development of the country has been extremely uneven: the
   Moscow region contributes one-third of the country's GDP while having
   only a tenth of its population. GDP increased by 7.2% in 2004 and 6.4%
   in 2005.

Recent economy

   The country's GDP (PPP) soared to $1.5 trillion in 2004, making it the
   ninth largest economy in the world and the fifth largest in Europe. If
   the current growth rate is sustained, the country is expected to become
   the second largest European economy after Germany and the sixth largest
   in the world within a few years.

   In 2005, according to the Federal Service of State Statistics, GDP
   reached $765 billion nominally (21.7 trillion rubles), equal to $1.6
   trillion in international dollars (PPP; purchasing power parity).
   Inflation was 10.9% percent. Expenditures of the consolidated budget
   have reached 5942 billion rubles ($215 billion). The government plans
   to reduce the tax burden, although the time and scale of such a
   reduction remains undecided.

   In 2005 Russia exported $241.3 billion dollars and imported $98.5
   billion dollars. This means that Russia registered a trade surplus of
   $142.8 billion dollars in 2005, up about 33% from 2004's foreign trade
   surplus of $106.1 billion dollars.

   By August 17, 2006, Russia's international reserves reached $277
   billion nominally and projected to grow to $320 billion by the end of
   this year and to $350–450 billion by the end of 2007 .

   Thanks to high oil prices, Russian oil exports totaled $117 billion in
   2005 while gas exports totaled $32 billion in the same year. That means
   that oil and gas made up 60% of total Russian exports in 2005.

   Knowing the importance of oil and gas to the economy, a Stabilization
   Fund was formed by the government in January 2004. This fund takes in
   windfall revenues from oil and gas exports and is designed to help
   offset oil market volatility. This fund was also set up in order to
   prevent the ruble from appreciating. The Stabilization Fund (SF) grew
   to $76.6 billion in November 2006. Russia's Deputy Prime Minister
   Alexander Zhukov said in October 2006 the fund will continue to
   increase over the coming years, and will exceed $149 billion by late
   2007 and about $260.4 billion by the end of 2009. Russia is paying off
   its foreign debt mainly from the Stabilization Fund, which hit $76.9
   billion as of July 1. Russia repaid the bulk of its outstanding debt to
   the Paris Club of Creditor Nations on August 18-21. The debt totaled
   $1.9 billion as of October 1, compared to $23.7 billion on July 1.

   According to the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia, the
   monthly nominal average salary in June 2006 was about 10,975 rubles
   (about $408 nominally; about $740 PPP), 25.6 percent higher than in
   June 2005 and 7 percent more than in May 2006.

   For the year of 2007, Russia's GDP is projected to grow to about $1.2
   trillion nominally (31.2 billion rubles)

Challenge

   Some perceive the greatest challenge facing the Russian economy to be
   encouraging the development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in a
   business climate with a young and less-than-sufficient functional
   banking system. Few of Russia's banks are owned by oligarchs, who often
   use the deposits to lend to their own businesses. The 2005 Milken
   Institute's ratings place Russia at the 51st place in the world, out of
   121 countries by the availability of capital.

   The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank
   have attempted to kick-start normal banking practices by making equity
   and debt investments in a number of banks, but with very limited
   success.

   However, about twenty-five of the biggest banks of Russia get entry
   into Top 1000 banks of the world by The Banker . Many more Russian
   banks have very high international ratings by Moody's and Fitch,
   including "investment" level.

   Other problems include disproportional economic development of Russia's
   own regions. While the huge capital region of Moscow is a bustling,
   affluent metropolis living on the cutting edge of technology with a per
   capita income rapidly approaching that of the leading Eurozone
   economies, much of the country, especially its indigenous and rural
   communities in Asia, lags significantly behind. Market integration is
   nonetheless making itself felt in some other sizeable cities such as
   Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and Ekaterinburg, and recently also in
   the adjacent rural areas.

   The arrest of Russia's wealthiest businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky on
   charges of fraud and corruption in relation to the large-scale
   privatizations organized under then-President Yeltsin, contrary to some
   expectations, has not caused most foreign investors to worry about the
   stability of the Russian economy. Most of the large fortunes currently
   in evidence in Russia are the product of either acquiring government
   assets at particularly low costs or gaining concessions from the
   government. Other countries have expressed concerns and worries at the
   "selective" application of the law against individual businessmen,
   though government actions have been received positively in Russia.

Prospect

   Tomsk State University.
   Enlarge
   Tomsk State University.

   Encouraging foreign investment is also a major challenge due to legal,
   cultural, linguistic, economic and political peculiarities of the
   country. Nevertheless, there has been a significant inflow of capital
   in recent years from many European investors attracted by cheaper land,
   labor and higher growth rates than in the rest of Europe.

   Very high levels of education and societal involvement achieved by the
   majority of the population, including women and minorities, secular
   attitudes, mobile class structure, and better integration of various
   minorities into the mainstream culture set Russia far apart from the
   majority of the so-called developing countries and even some developed
   nations.

   The country is also benefiting from rising oil prices and has been able
   very substantially to reduce its formerly huge foreign debt. However,
   equal redistribution of capital gains from the natural resource
   industries to other sectors is still a problem. Nonetheless, since
   2003, exports of natural resources started decreasing in economic
   importance as the internal market has strengthened considerably,
   largely stimulated by intense construction, as well as consumption of
   increasingly diverse goods and services. Yet teaching customers and
   encouraging consumer spending is a relatively tough task for many
   provincial areas where consumer demand is primitive. However, some
   laudable progress has been made in larger cities, especially in the
   clothing, food, and entertainment industries.

   Additionally, some international firms are investing in Russia.
   According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Russia had nearly
   $26 billion in cumulative foreign direct investment inflows during the
   period (of which $11.7 billion occurred in 2004).

   Russia faces considerable income inequalities that hinder Russia's
   potential to become a more diversified economy.

Demographics

   Despite its comparatively high population, Russia has a low average
   population density due to its enormous size. Population is densest in
   the European part of Russia, in the Ural Mountains area, and in the
   south-western parts of Siberia; the south-eastern part of Siberia that
   meets the Pacific Ocean, known as the Russian Far East, is sparsely
   populated, with its southern part being densest. The Russian Federation
   is home to as many as 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous
   peoples. As of the Russian Census (2002), 79.8% of the population is
   ethnically Russian, 3.8% Tatar, 2% Ukrainian, 1.2% Bashkir, 1.1%
   Chuvash, 0.9% Chechen, 0.8% Armenian. The remaining 10.3% includes
   those who did not specify their ethnicity as well as (in alphabetical
   order) Assyrians, Avars, Azeris, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Buryats,
   Chinese, Cossacks, Estonians, Evenks, Finns, Georgians, Germans,
   Greeks, Ingushes, Inuit, Jews, Kalmyks, Karelians, Kazakhs, Koreans,
   Kyrgyz, Lithuanians, Latvians, Maris, Mongolians, Mordvins, Nenetses,
   Ossetians, Poles, Romanians, Tajiks, Tuvans, Turkmen, Udmurts, Uzbeks,
   Yakuts, and others. Nearly all of these groups live compactly in their
   respective regions; Russians are the only people significantly
   represented in every region of the country.

   The Russian language is the only official state language, but the
   individual republics have often made their native language co-official
   next to Russian. The Cyrillic alphabet is the only official script,
   which means that these languages must be written in Cyrillic in
   official texts.

   The Russian Orthodox Church is the dominant Christian religion in the
   Federation. Islam is the second most widespread religion. Hindus make
   up a small but fast-growing minority, particularly followers of the
   ISKCON movement. Other religions include various Protestant churches,
   Judaism, Roman Catholicism and Buddhism. Induction into religion takes
   place primarily along ethnic lines. Ethnic Russians are mainly Orthodox
   whereas most people of Turkic and Caucasian extraction are Sunni
   Muslim. However, after years of religious suppression under communism,
   the level of observance of these religious creeds is very low.

Culture

     * Cinema of Russia
     * Russian traditions and superstitions
     * Ethnic Russian music
     * List of Russians
     * Music of Russia
     * Russian architecture
     * Russian cuisine
     * Russian humour
     * Russian literature
          + Russian-language poets
          + Russian formalism
          + Russian folklore

Etymology

   The name of the country derives from the name of the Rus' people. The
   origin of the people itself and of their name is a matter of some
   controversy.

Neighbouring countries

   Barents Sea
   Flag of Norway  Norway
   Flag of Finland  Finland Flag of Canada  Canada
   Flag of United States  United States
   Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation North.png
   Arctic Ocean Bering Sea
   image:Template_CanadianCityGeoLocation_East.png   Flag of United States
    United States
   Flag of Sweden  Sweden  Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation West.png
     Gulf of Finland • Baltic Sea
   Flag of Estonia  Estonia
   Flag of Latvia  Latvia
   Flag of Lithuania  Lithuania
   Flag of Poland  Poland
   Flag of Belarus  Belarus
   Flag of Ukraine  Ukraine North North Pacific Ocean
   Sea of Okhotsk
   Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation South.png
   Flag of Japan  Japan
   West    Flag of Russia  Russia     East
   South
   Flag of Georgia (country)  Georgia •  Flag of Azerbaijan  Azerbaijan
   Flag of Ukraine  Ukraine  Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation
   West.png   Black Sea
   Flag of Romania  Romania  Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation
   West.png   Black Sea
   Flag of Bulgaria  Bulgaria  Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation
   West.png   Black Sea
   Flag of Turkey  Turkey  Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation West.png
     Black Sea
   Caspian Sea  Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation East.png   Flag of
   Kazakhstan  Kazakhstan
   Caspian Sea  Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation East.png   Flag of
   Turkmenistan  Turkmenistan
   Caspian Sea
   Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation South.png
   Flag of Azerbaijan  Azerbaijan •  Flag of Iran  Iran Flag of Kazakhstan
    Kazakhstan
   Flag of Mongolia  Mongolia
   Flag of People's Republic of China  China Flag of People's Republic of
   China  China
   Flag of North Korea  North Korea
   Sea of Japan  image:Template_CanadianCityGeoLocation_East.png   Flag of
   Japan  Japan
   Sea of Japan
   Image:Template CanadianCityGeoLocation South.png
   Flag of North Korea  North Korea
   Flag of South Korea  South Korea
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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