| Geographical Information |
| Map Location |
Asia |
| Geographical Location |
60° 00' North Latitude
100° 00' East Longitude |
| Surface Area |
17,075,200 sq km |
| Climate |
Ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north;
winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast |
| Natural Resources |
Wide natural resource base including major deposits of oil, natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, timber |
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| Political Information |
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| Country Name |
Russian Federation |
| Capital City |
Moscow |
| Government Type |
Federation |
| Administrative Divisions |
49 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast), 21 republics (respublik, singular - respublika), 10 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnykh okrugov, singular - avtonomnyy okrug),
6 krays (krayev, singular - kray), 2 federal cities (singular - gorod), and 1 autonomous oblast (avtonomnaya oblast')
Oblasts: Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy),
Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Perm', Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan',
Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl'
Republics: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan (Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas),
Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk), Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordoviya (Saransk),
Sakha [Yakutiya] (Yakutsk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk)
Autonomous okrugs: Aga Buryat (Aginskoye), Chukotka (Anadyr'), Evenk (Tura), Khanty-Mansi, Komi-Permyak (Kudymkar), Koryak (Palana), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Taymyr [Dolgano-Nenets] (Dudinka),
Ust'-Orda Buryat (Ust'-Ordynskiy), Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard)
Krays: Altay (Barnaul), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Primorskiy (Vladivostok), Stavropol'
Federal cities: Moscow (Moskva), Saint Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg)
Autonomous oblast: Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)
Note: administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses) |
| Independence Day |
24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union) |
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| Demographical Information |
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| Population |
143,420,309 (July 2005 est.) |
| Nationality |
Russian |
| Ethnic Groups |
Russian 79.8%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 2%, Bashkir 1.2%, Chuvash 1.1%, other or unspecified 12.1% (2002 census) |
| Religion |
Russian Orthodox, Muslim, other |
| Languages |
Russian, many minority languages |
| Population Growth Rate |
-0.37% (2005 est.) |
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| Economical Information |
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| Currency |
Russian ruble (RUR) |
| Industries |
Complete range of mining and extractive industries producing coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and metals; all forms of machine building from rolling mills to high-performance aircraft and space vehicles;
defense industries including radar, missile production, and advanced electronic components, shipbuilding; road and rail transportation equipment; communications equipment; agricultural machinery,
tractors, and construction equipment; electric power generating and transmitting equipment; medical and scientific instruments; consumer durables, textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts |
| Labor Force |
71.83 million (2004 est.) |
| Labor Force by Sectors |
Agriculture 12.3%, industry 22.7%, services 65% (2002 est.) |
| Agriculture Products |
Grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, vegetables, fruits; beef, milk |
| Export Commodities |
Petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures |
| Export Partners |
Germany 8.4%, Netherlands 6.7%, China 6.4%, US 5.8%, Ukraine 5.7%, Italy 5.4%, Turkey 4.5% (2004) |
| Import Commodities |
Machinery and equipment, consumer goods, medicines, meat, sugar, semifinished metal products |
| Import Partners |
Germany 16.7%, China 7.1%, Ukraine 6.7%, Italy 5.9%, Finland 5%, France 4.5%, Japan 4.5% (2004) |
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| Transportation |
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| Railways |
87,157 km |
| Highways |
537,289 km |
| Pipelines |
condensate 122 km; gas 150,007 km; oil 75,539 km; refined products 13,771 km (2004) |
| Airports |
2,586 (2004 est.) |
| Ports and Harbors |
Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskiy, Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', De-Kastri, Indigirskiy, Kaliningrad, Kandalaksha, Kazan', Khabarovsk, Kholmsk, Krasnoyarsk,
Lazarev, Mago, Mezen', Moscow, Murmansk, Nakhodka, Nevel'sk, Novorossiysk, Onega, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Rostov, Shakhtersk, Saint Petersburg,
Sochi, Taganrog, Tuapse, Uglegorsk, Vanino, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Vostochnyy, Vyborg |
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| Communication |
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| Phone Code |
+7 |
| Internet Abbreviation |
.ru |
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| Other |
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| Short History |
Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and
absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725),
hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Repeated
devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household.
The Communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR. The brutal rule of Josef STALIN (1928-53) strengthened Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost
of tens of millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the following decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and
perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into 15 independent republics.
Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy to replace the strict social, political, and economic controls of the Communist period.
While some progress has been made on the economic front, recent years have seen a recentralization of power under Vladimir PUTIN and an erosion in nascent democratic institutions. A determined
guerrilla conflict still plagues Russia in Chechnya. |
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