Jan 20 2008

About Russia

Published by Irina

about russia

BASIC FACTS

Russia, also the Russian Federation is a transcontinental country extending over a vast expanse of Asia and Europe. With an area of 17,075,400 km², Russia is the largest country in the world, covering almost twice the total (land and sea) area of the next-largest country, Canada, and has significant mineral and energy resources. Russia has the world’s eighth-largest population.

Capital: Moscow, administrative centre and Russia’s biggest city (follow the link for live webcam views of Moscow’s Red Square)

Official languages: Russian throughout; thirty other co-official languages in various regions

Top officials

- President Dmitry Medvedev
- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

Formation

- Declared June 12, 1990
- Finalized December 25, 1991

Area

- Total 17,075,400 km² (6,592,800 sq mi)
- Water (%) 13

Population

- 2006 estimate 142,400,000 (8th)
- 2002 census 145,184,000
- Density 8.3 /km² (209th) (21.8 /sq mi)

GDP (PPP) 2006 estimate

- Total $1.723 trillion (9th1)
- Per capita $12,100 (62nd)

GDP (nominal) 2005 estimate

- Total $763 billion (14th)
- Per capita $5,349 (61st)

Currency

- Ruble (RUB)

Calling code +7

Russia shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from northwest to southeast): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea.

It is also close to the United States (Alaska state), Sweden, and Japan across relatively small stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, and La Pérouse Strait, respectively).

Formerly the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), a republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia became the Russian Federation following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

After the Soviet era, the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet Union (then one of the world’s two Cold War superpowers) that were located in Russia passed on to the Russian Federation.

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the newly-independent Russian Federation emerged as a great power (although it is also considered to be an energy superpower).

Russia is considered the Soviet Union’s successor state in diplomatic matters and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is also one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states.

Russia is the leading nation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a member of the G8 as well as other international organisations.

(Source: Wikipedia )