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Russia is the largest country in the world with a total area of 17 075 400 square kilometers (over 6.5 million square miles), that is about 1,8 times the size of the USA. It’s situated in the Eastern part of Europe and Northern part of Asia. The main part of the European territory of Russia is situated within the Eastern European Plain (Vostochno-Evropeyskaya Ravnina). The southern border is on the North Caucasus. The main part of the Asian area of Russia is on Zapadno-Sibirskaya Ravnina and Sredne-Sibirskoye Plosko-gor’ye. The territory of Russia spans 11 times zones.
Russia borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and North Korea by land, and with Sweden, Turkey, Japan and the USA by sea.
The climate of Russia varies from the steppes in the south and coastal areas on the north-west through humid continential areas in much of European Russia; sub arctic zones in Siberia to the tundra climate in the polar north and monsoon regions on the Far East. The average temperatures of January vary from 0¡ to 50¡C, July Ñ from 1¡ to 25¡C. Many regions of Siberia and the Far East are situated in the permafrost zone. Thus, Russia is one of the coldest countries in the world. The town of Oimyakon in north-east Siberia is the coldest inhabited place on earth, with temperatures recorded at more than 70¡C below zero. The inhabited areas are mostly in the continental climate zones with long freezing winters (5Ð6 months long) and short warm summers.
The largest rivers: Volga, Lena, Irtysh, Yenisey, Ob, Amur.
The largest lakes: Caspean Sea, Aral’skoye More, Baykal, Ladozhskoye, Onezhskoye.
Russia has an extremely wide natural resource base including major deposits of oil, natural gas, coal, strategic minerals, timber, diamonds and gold. There are 85 nature reserves and 25 national parks.
Population
The majority of Russians are descended from people called Slavs, but there are small numbers of about 100 other ethnic groups. This includes Ukrainians, Belarussians, Jews and Armenians. Most Russians live in European Russia, the west of the country. Total population is about 144.7 mln people, with about 72.9% urban population. Most of the population are Russians (81,5%), with more than 100 other nationalities (Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 3%, Chuvash 1.2%, Bashkir 0.9.
Language
The official language is Russian. Every autonomous republic uses its own language as the second official language.
Religions
Russian Orthodox, Muslim, Judaic and others.
The state
The official name of the state: Russian Federation. It is a democratic federative republic. The country was formed as independent 24 August 1991 from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of Soviet Union. The current Constitution was adopted 12 December 1993 by national referendum.
Russia is divided into 21 autonomous republics, 10 autonomous okrugs, 6 krays, 2 federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg), 1 autonomous oblast and 49 oblasts, 1066 cities and towns, 2070 urban settlements (1994). The national capital is Moscow.
Economy
Russia is potentially one of the wealthiest countries with its natural resources, a well-educated population (99.6% adult literacy; 64% tertiary education enrollment rate), and a diverse industrial base. Nevertheless, its economic situation has deteriorated since the beginning of Perestroika in 1985, which announced moving from centrally planned economy to a market economy. The absence of a clear economical doctrine and means led to destruction of internal economical structure and declining of industries. In its turn, it led to significant raise of unemployment, with official unemployment figures of 10.2% (which might be in reality twice as high, since many people do not file for unemployment benefits).
Russian health and education systems, which used to be of the highest standard during the Soviet times, were slowly deteriorating. Inflation, started in 1992, reached its peak in 1994, and increased 10 000% by the end of 1997. In 1998 the government implemented a 1000% denomination of national currency (Rouble), turning back prices from thousands rubles to rubles.
August 1998 brought a new serious crisis. The exchange rate of US Dollar flew up from 6 to 24 rubles in less than 6 weeks. Small businesses were almost devastated. Prices for consumer goods increased in 4-5 times with the salaries increased only on 20-30%.
However, the crisis gave a boost to the development of national industries, which could not compete with foreign goods with the low dollar rate. Now, 5 years after the crisis, the results become visible with reviving the industrial enterprises, particularly in production of consumer goods and food processing.
Currently the average salary is Russia is about US $100 (salary of a teacher, government employee etc).
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