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Российская Федерация
Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
Russian Federation
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Anthem: Государственный гимн Российской Федерации (Russian)
Gosudarstvenny gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii (transliteration)
State Anthem of the Russian Federation
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Capital
(and largest city) |
Moscow
 55°45′N, 37°37′E |
| Official languages |
Russian official throughout nation; twenty-seven others co-official in various regions |
| Demonym |
Russian |
| Government |
Federal semi-presidential republic |
| - |
President |
Dmitry Medvedev |
| - |
Prime Minister |
Vladimir Putin |
| - |
Chairman of the Federation Council |
Sergey Mironov |
| - |
Chairman of the State Duma |
Boris Gryzlov |
| Founded (862)1 |
Novgorodians invited prince Rurik to keep law and order, thus giving birth to the Rurik dynasty that ruled over all Russian lands throughout more than 700 years[1] |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
17,075,400 km² (1st)
6,592,800 sq mi |
| - |
Water (%) |
13[2] |
| Population |
| - |
2008 estimate |
142,008,838[3] (9th) |
| - |
2002 census |
145,166,731[4] |
| - |
Density |
8.3/km² (209th)
21.5/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2007 estimate |
| - |
Total |
$2.088 trillion[5] (7th) |
| - |
Per capita |
$14,692[5] (52nd) |
| GDP (nominal) |
2007 estimate |
| - |
Total |
$1.290 trillion[5] (11th) |
| - |
Per capita |
$9,075 (54th) |
| Gini (2005) |
40.5[6] |
| HDI (2005) |
▲ 0.802 (high[7]) (67th) |
| Currency |
Ruble (RUB) |
| Time zone |
(UTC+2 to +12) |
| - |
Summer (DST) |
(UTC+3 to +13) |
| Internet TLD |
.ru (.su reserved), (.рф2 2009) |
| Calling code |
+7 |
| 1 |
The Russian Federation is
the successor to earlier forms of continuous statehood, starting from 9
century AD when Rurik, a viking warrior, established "Russ" or "Rhos"
state at Novgorod, traditionally taken as the beginning of Russian statehood |
| 2 |
The .рф Top-level domain will be available for use in the Russian Federation in the second quarter of 2009 and will only accept domains which use the Cyrillic alphabet.[8] |
Russia [ˈɹʌʃə] (help·info) (Russian: Россия, Rossiya), also[9] the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация?·i, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya), is a transcontinental country extending over much of northern Eurasia. It is a semi-presidential republic comprising 83 federal subjects. Russia shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from northwest to southeast): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast), Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It is also close to the U.S. state of Alaska, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey and Japan across relatively small stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and La Pérouse Strait, respectively).
At 17,075,400 square kilometers,[2] Russia is by far the largest country in the world, covering more than an eighth of the Earth’s land area; with 142 million people, it is the ninth largest by population. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe,
spanning 11 time zones and incorporating a great range of environments
and landforms. Russia has the world's greatest reserves of mineral and
energy resources,[10] and is considered an energy superpower.
It has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain
approximately one-quarter of the world's unfrozen fresh water.[11]
The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs. The Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD.[12] Founded and ruled by Vikings and their descendants, the first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century and adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988,[13] beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium.[13]
Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated and the lands were divided into
many small feudal states. The most powerful successor state to Kievan
Rus' was Moscow, which served as the main force in the Russian reunification process and independence struggle against the Golden Horde.
Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities and
came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By
the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest,
annexation and exploration to become the huge Russian Empire, stretching from Poland eastward to the Pacific Ocean.
Russia established worldwide power and influence from the times of the Russian Empire to being the largest and leading constituent of the Soviet Union, the world's first and largest constitutionally socialist state and a recognized superpower. The nation can boast a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts and sciences.[12] The Russian Federation was founded following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, but is recognized as the continuing legal personality of the Soviet Union.[14] Russia is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the G8. It is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
Geography
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The Russian Federation stretches across much of the north of the super-continent of Eurasia.
Because of its size, Russia displays both monotony and diversity. As
with its topography, its climates, vegetation, and soils span vast
distances.[15] From north to south the East European Plain is clad sequentially in tundra, coniferous forest (taiga), mixed and broad-leaf forests, grassland (steppe), and semi-desert (fringing the Caspian Sea) as the changes in vegetation reflect the changes in climate. Siberia supports a similar sequence but is taiga. The country contains 23 World Heritage Sites[16] and 40 UNESCO Biosphere reserves.[17]
Topography
The two widest separated points in Russia are about 8,000 km (5,000 mi) apart along a geodesic line. 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 Kuril Islands, a few miles off Hokkaidō Island,
Japan. The points which are furthest separated in longitude are
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 11 time zones.
Russia has the world's largest forest reserves[11] and is known as "the lungs of Europe",[18] second only to the Amazon Rainforest
in the amount of carbon dioxide it absorbs. It provides a huge amount
of oxygen for not just Europe, but the world. With access to three of
the world's oceans—the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific—Russian fishing
fleets are a major contributor to the world's fish supply.[19] The Caspian is the source of what is considered the finest caviar in the world.
Most of Russia consists of vast stretches of plains that are predominantly steppe to the south and heavily forested to the north, with tundra along the northern coast. 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 Ural Mountains form a north-south range that divides Europe and Asia, rich in mineral resources. Russia possesses 10% of the world's arable land.
Classical
from 
