Russian Federation

Russia (ˈrʌʃə/; Russian: Росси́я, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə]), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Росси́йская Федера́ция, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə]), is a sovereign state in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic. At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is the world's ninth most populous country with over 144 million people at the end of 2015.

Extending across the entirety of northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both with Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait.

The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire,beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde in the 13th century.

The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland in Europe to Alaska in North America.

Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Soviet Union abbreviated to USSR, the world's first constitutionally socialist state and a recognized world superpower, and a rival to the United States which played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite, and the first man in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the world's second largest economy, largest standing military in the world and the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction(nuclear threat obliged the state to detonate Tsar Bomba, which was mankind's most powerful nuclear bomb ever built. Following the partition of the Soviet Union in 1991, fourteen independent republics emerged from the USSR; as the largest, most populous, and most economically developed republic, the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognized as the continuing legal personality (the sole successor state) of the Soviet Union.

The Russian economy ranks as the tenth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources, the largest reserves in the world, have made it one of the largest producers of oil and natural gas globally. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia was the world's second biggest exporter of major arms in 2010-14, according to SIPRI data.

Russia is a great power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as being the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and one of the 5 members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), along with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Geography

Russia is the largest country in the world; its total area is 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi). There are 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Russia, 40 UNESCO biosphere reserves, 41 national parks and 101 nature reserves. It lies between latitudes 41° and 82° N, and longitudes 19° E and 169° W.

Russia's territorial expansion was achieved largely in the late 16th century under the Cossack Yermak Timofeyevich during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, at a time when competing city-states in the western regions of Russia had banded together to form one country. Yermak mustered an army and pushed eastward where he conquered nearly all the lands once belonging to the Mongols, defeating their ruler, Khan Kuchum.

Russia has a wide natural resource base, including major deposits of timber, petroleum, natural gas, coal, ores and other mineral resources.

Info:

Motto: Not Available
Anthem: "Государственный гимн Российской Федерации" "Gosudarstvennyy gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii" | State Anthem of the Russian Federation
Capital: Moscow
Official Language: Russian 
Religion: Orthodox Christianity
Demonym: Russian
Legislature: Federal Assembly
Area: 17,098,242 (Crimea not included) km2
Currency: Russian ruble (₽) (RUB)
Time Zone: (UTC+2 to +12)
Date Format: dd-mm-yyyy
Drives on the: right
Calling code: +7
ISO 3166 Code: RU
International TLD: .ru .su .рф

Largest Cities/Towns/Districts of Russia

1. Moscow
2. St. Petersburg
3. Novosibirsk
4. Yekaterinburg
5. Nizhny Novgorod
6. Samara
7. Omsk
8. Kazan'
9. Rostov-on-Don
10. Chelyabinsk

Flag of Russia

The flag of Russia is a tricolor flag consisting of three equal horizontal fields: white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant ships and became official as the flag of the Tsardom of Russia in 1696.

Official Website: Government.ru

Did You Know?

• Russia is bigger than Pluto.
• 77% of Russia is made up of Siberia.
• Each Russian consumes 18 litres (4.8 US gal) of alcohol per year, doubling what experts consider dangerous.
• In Russia there are 9 million more Women than men.
• Russia & America are less than 4 km apart at the nearest point.
• There are over 500,000 alcohol-related deaths in Russia each year.
• In Russia it's now Illegal to tell kids Gay People Exist.
• A russian woman in the 1700s gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets in just 40 years with the same man.
• In 1908 the Imperial Russian Olympic Team arrived in London 12 days too late for the games because they were not using the Gregorian calendar yet.
• The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for just US$7.2 million in 1867.
• Stalin didn't start learning Russian until he was 8. His mother tongue was Georgian.
• The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown in Russia from 32,000-year-old seeds.
• Japan and Russia still haven't signed a peace treaty to end World War II due to the Kuril Islands dispute.
• Gorbachev recorded an album of Russian romantic ballads in 2009.
• Beer was not considered an alcoholic beverage in Russia until 2013.
• Foxes are domesticated like dogs by Russian scientists since 1959.
• There was a "Beard Tax" in Russia, during Peter the Great's Reign, paid by anyone who had a beard.
• There's a museum in Russia that hires cats to protect its artworks against rodents.
• The word “vodka” comes from the Russian word “voda” that means “water”.
• Lake Karachay in Russia is the most radioactive and polluted lake in the world.
• 25% Russians die before reaching the age of 55, compared to just 1% in the U.S., and Vodka is to blame.
• It is a criminal offence to drive around in a dirty car in Russia.
• It is believed Russia has at least 15 secret cities with their names, and locations unknown.
• A third of all Russians believe the Sun revolves around the Earth.
• Wealthy Russians hire fake ambulances to beat Moscow's traffic.
• In Russia, during times of economic disparity or high inflation, teachers can be paid in Vodka.
• 20% of the world's unfrozen fresh water is in a single lake: Russia's Lake Baikal.
• The first Russian child to receive the vaccine against smallpox was called "Vaccinov," given a pension and observed all his life.
• The Russian mayor of Megion, west Siberia, banned excuses.
• Russia's notorious murderer Vladimir Nikolayev ate some of his victim's body, then gave the rest of the meat to a friend, whose wife served it to his family thinking it was a kangaroo.
• Apple Is Worth More Than The Entire Russian Stock Market.
• Russia has over 8400 nuclear weapons, more than any other country.
• In Canada, Mexico, India, Russia and Israel, bank notes have Braille-like markings on them for the blind.
• In 1600, a volcano eruption in Peru caused a famine that killed about 2 million people in Russia.
• Of all the countries that celebrate an independence day, 58 are independent of the UK, 26 of France, 21 of Russia and 21 of Spain.
• Homosexuality and abortion were decriminalised in Russia under Lenin's leadership.

References

• Wikipedia
• Theodora
• Fact Slides
• Geo Names