Russian Cities and
Travel Destinations around Russia.
Moscow
Irkutsk
Kazan
Nizhny Novgorod
Saint Petersburg
Vladivostok
Yekaterinburg
Lake Baikal
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 Russia
Russian
Russia (Russian: Росси́я, Rossiya), also the
Russian Federation (Росси́йская Федера́ция, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya;
listen (help·info)), is a transcontinental country extending over
much of northern Eurasia. It is a semi-presidential republic
comprising 84 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 and Japan across relatively small
stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, and La
Pérouse Strait, respectively).
At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), 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 has the world's eighth largest economy by
purchasing power parity GDP. Russia 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 largest mineral and energy resources, and is
considered an energy superpower. It contains approximately
one-quarter of the world's unfrozen fresh water and has the world's
largest forest reserves.
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. 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, beginning
the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian
culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately
disintegrated and the Russian lands were divided. The most powerful
successor state to Kievan Rus' was Moscow, which gradually came to
dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the
18th century, the Grand Duchy of Moscow had 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 preeminent constituent of the Soviet
Union, the world's first and largest Communist state, and can boast
a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts and
sciences. 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. 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. |
