Russia is the largest country in the world, stretching over an area of 17.1 million square kilometer. It has longest borders in the world, it’s washed by 22 seas and has 12 in-land seas. There is a great variety of landscapes in Russia. There are tundra and steppes, mountains and volcanoes, glaciers and deserts there. Russian lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and the Urals are the oldest mountains. Ladoga Lake of Russia claims the distinction of being the largest lake in Europe. It spreads over 18 400 sq km and is around 51 m deep.

Flag of Russian Federation

Russia has borders with Azerbaijan 284 km, Belarus 959 km, China (southeast) 3,605 km, China (south) 40 km, Estonia 294 km, Finland 1,313 km, Georgia 723 km, Kazakhstan 6,846 km, North Korea 19 km, Latvia 217 km, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast) 227 km, Mongolia 3,485 km, Norway 196 km, Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast) 206 km, Ukraine 1,576 km.

The territory of the country is so large that the climate depends on where you are located. It ranges from humid continental to subarctic. But mostly it’s continental. Winter and summer are of about the same duration. Temperature in Moscow (the capital) varies from +32° C (90° F) in summer to -25° C (-13° F) in winter. Russia has a federative type of government. Administratively it consists of 21 autonomous republics, 49 oblasts or provinces, 6 territories (kray), 10 autonomous regions (okrug) and 1 autonomous oblast. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, post-Soviet Russia is still trying to establish a modern market economy, modernize its industrial base, and maintain strong economic growth. Russia has a large amount of natural resources, including oil, natural gas, timber, coal and many strategic minerals. Yet, Russia is in a dire economic situation. There are increasingly larger differences in economic prosperity between cities and rural areas. Due to rising oil prices, Russia’s economic power has risen considerably again. The official language of Russia is Russian. It is one of the 5 most spoken languages in the world. And the country’s main religion is Russian Orthodoxy. 20% of Russians practice Islam. Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism are not wide spread, but exist. In terms of population, Russia is the ninth largest country in the world. Russia has about 145.5 million people. 11 million live in Moscow which is the largest city in Europe. St Petersburg has 5 million inhabitants. Russia is home to more than 100 different ethnic groups. Slavs account for about 75% of the total population. Moscow is three hours ahead of London time and eight hours ahead of New York. Vladivostok is seven hours ahead of Moscow. It takes about 9 hours to travel from New York to Moscow, 3:30 from London to Moscow and 10:30 from Tokyo.