Russia
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Russia (Template:Lang-ru, Rossiya; pronounced Template:IPA), also<ref>From Article 1 of Constitution of Russia: "The names "Russian Federation" and "Russia" shall be equivalent."</ref> the Russian Federation (Росси́йская Федера́ция, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; Template:IPA,(Russian language) Template:Audio), is a transcontinental country extending over much of northern Eurasia (Asia and Europe). With an area of 17,075,400 km², Russia is by far the largest country in the world, covering almost twice the total area of the next-largest country, Canada, and has significant mineral and energy resources. Russia has the world's ninth-largest population. 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, the other superpower being the United States) that were located in Russia passed on to the Russian Federation.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the newly-independent Russian Federation emerged as a great power and 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 and possesses the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia is the leading nation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a member of the G8 as well as other international organisations.
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History
Ancient Russia
Prior to the first century, the vast lands of southern Russia were home to scattered tribes, such as Proto-Indo-Europeans and Scythians.<ref>The Life and Travels of Herodotus in the Fifth Century: An Imaginary Biography Founded on Fact,... - Page 411 by James Talboys Wheeler (1824)</ref> Between the third and sixth centuries, the steppes were overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions, led by warlike tribes which would often move on to Europe, as was the case with Huns and Turkish Avars.
During the period from fifth century BC to seventh century human settlements are represented by Dyakovo culture of Iron Age which occupies the significant part of the Upper Volga, Valday and Oka River area. Dyakovo culture was formed by Finno-Ugric peoples, ancestors of Merya, Muromian, Meshchera, Veps tribes. All regional Funno-Ugric toponymy and hydronym names go back to those languages, for example Yauza River which is a confluent of the Moskva River, and probably the Moskva River itself too.
A Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled southern Russia through the 8th century. They were important allies of the Byzantine Empire and waged a series of successful wars against the Arab caliphates. A statue of a Vedic god recently excavated in the Volga region points to a link to India around the ninth century.
In this era, the term "Rhos" or "Rus" first came to be applied to the Varangians and later also to the Slavs who peopled the region.<ref>Russia from the Varangians to the Bolsheviks - Page 4 by George Arthur. Birkett, Charles Raymond Beazley, Nevill Forbes</ref> As well as one of the rulers who contributed to the name "rus". In the tenth to eleventh centuries this state of Kievan Rus became the largest in Europe and one of the most prosperous, due to diversified trade with both Europe and Asia. The opening of new trade routes with the Orient at the time of the Crusades contributed to the decline and fragmentation of Kievan Rus by the end of the twelfth century.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the constant incursions of nomadic Turkish tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, led to the massive migration of Slavic populations from the fertile south to the heavily forested regions of the north, known as Zalesye. The medieval states of Novgorod Republic and Vladimir-Suzdal emerged as successors to Kievan Rus on those territories, while the middle course of the Volga River came to be dominated by the Muslim state of Volga Bulgaria. Like many other parts of Eurasia, these territories were overrun by the Mongol invaders, who formed the state of Golden Horde which would pillage the Russian principalities for over three centuries. Later known as the Tatars, they ruled the southern and central expanses of present-day Russia, while the territories of present-day Ukraine and Belarus were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, thus dividing the Russian people in the north from the Belarusians and Ukrainians in the west.
Similarly to the Balkans, long-lasting nomadic rule retarded the country's economic and social development. However, the Novgorod Republic together with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and was largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Alexander Nevsky, the Novgorodians repelled the Germanic crusaders who attempted to colonize the region.
Muscovy
Template:Main Unlike its spiritual leader, the Byzantine Empire, Russia under the leadership of Moscow was able to revive and organise its own war of reconquest, finally subjugating its enemies and annexing their territories. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Muscovite Russia remained the only more or less functional Christian state on the Eastern European frontier, allowing it to claim succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire.
While still under the domain of the Mongol-Tatars and with their connivance, the duchy of Moscow began to assert its influence in Western Russia in the early fourteenth century. Assisted by the Russian Orthodox Church and Saint Sergius of Radonezh's spiritual revival, Muscovy inflicted a defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo (1380). Ivan the Great eventually tossed off the control of the invaders, consolidated surrounding areas under Moscow's dominion and first took the title "grand duke of all the Russias".
In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Russian state set the national goal to return all Russian territories lost as a result of the Tatar invasion and to protect the southern borderland against attacks of Crimean Tatars and other Turkic peoples. The noblemen, receiving a manor from the sovereign, were obliged to serve in the military. The manor system became a basis for the nobiliary horse army.
In 1547, Ivan the Terrible was officially crowned the first Tsar of Russia. During his long reign, Ivan annexed the Tatar khanates (Kazan, Astarkhan) along the Volga River and transformed Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state. By the end of the century, Russian Cossacks established the first Russian settlements in Western Siberia. But his rule was also marked by the atrocities against both the nobility and the common people on vast scale which eventually, after his death, led to the civil war of the Time of Troubles in early 1600s. In the middle of the seventeenth century there were Russian settlements in Eastern Siberia, on Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, on the Pacific coast, and the strait between North America and Asia was first sighted by a Russian explorer in 1648. The colonization of the Asian territories was largely peaceful, in sharp contrast to the build-up of other colonial empires of the time.
Imperial Russia
Muscovite control of the nascent nation continued after the Polish intervention under the subsequent Romanov dynasty, beginning with Tsar Michael Romanov in 1613. Peter the Great (ruled in) defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War, forcing it to cede Ingria, Estland, and Livland (the two latter now being Estonia and northern Latvia). It was in Ingria that he founded a new capital, Saint Petersburg. Peter succeeded in bringing ideas and culture from Western Europe to a severely underdeveloped Russia. After his reforms, Russia emerged as a major European power.
Catherine the Great, ruling from 1762 to 1796, continued the Petrine efforts at establishing Russia as one of the great powers of Europe. Examples of its eighteenth-century European involvement include the War of Polish Succession and the Seven Years' War. In the wake of the Partitions of Poland, Russia had taken territories with the ethnic Belarusian and Ukrainian population, earlier parts of Kievan Rus'. As a result of the victorious Russian-Turkish wars, Russia's borders expanded to the Black Sea and Russia set its goal on the protection of Balkan Christians against a Turkish yoke. In 1783, Russia and the Georgian Kingdom (which was almost totally devastated by Persian and Turkish invasions) signed the treaty of Georgievsk according to which Georgia received the protection of Russia.
In 1812, having gathered nearly half a million soldiers from France as well as from all of its conquered states in Europe, Napoleon invaded Russia but, after taking Moscow, was forced to retreat back to Europe. Almost 90% of the invading forces died as a result of on-going battles with the Russian army, guerrillas and winter weather. The Russian armies ended their pursuit of the enemy by taking his capital, Paris. The officers of the Napoleonic wars brought back to Russia the ideas of liberalism and even attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt (1825), which was followed by several decades of political repression. Another result of the Napoleonic wars was the incorporation of Bessarabia, Finland, and Congress Poland into the Russian Empire.
The perseverance of Russian serfdom and the conservative policies of Nicholas I of Russia impeded the development of Imperial Russia in the mid-nineteenth century. As a result, the country was defeated in the Crimean War, 1853–1856, by an alliance of major European powers, including Britain, France, Ottoman Empire, and Piedmont-Sardinia. Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–1881) was forced to undertake a series of comprehensive reforms and issued a decree abolishing serfdom in 1861. The Great Reforms of Alexander's reign spurred increasingly rapid capitalist development and Sergei Witte's attempts at industrialization. The Slavophile mood was on the rise, spearheaded by Russia's victory in the Russo-Turkish War, which forced the Ottoman Empire to recognize the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and autonomy of Bulgaria.
The failure of agrarian reforms and suppression of the growing liberal intelligentsia were continuing problems however, and on the eve of World War I, the position of Tsar Nicholas II and his dynasty appeared precarious. The Russian government did not want war in 1914 but felt that the only alternative was acceptance of German domination of Europe.<ref name=encarta2>"Russia." MSN Encarta. <http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569000_20/Russia.html>.</ref> Upper- and middle-class Russians rallied around the regime’s war effort.<ref name=encarta2/> Peasants and workers were much less enthusiastic.<ref name=encarta2/> Germany was Europe’s leading military and industrial power, and Austria and the Ottoman Empire were its allies in the war.<ref name=encarta2/> Consequently, Russia was forced to fight on three fronts and was isolated from its French and British war partners.<ref name=encarta2/> Under these circumstances the Russian war effort was impressive.<ref name=encarta2/> Having won a number of major battles in 1916, the army was far from defeated when the Russian Revolution of 1917 broke out in February.<ref name=encarta2/> The home front collapsed under the strains of war, partly for economic reasons but primarily because the already existing public distrust of the regime was deepened by tales of inefficiency, corruption, and even treason in high places.<ref name=encarta2/> Many of these tales were nonsense or grossly exaggerated, such as the belief that a semiliterate mystic, Grigory Rasputin, had great political influence within the government.<ref name=encarta2/> What mattered, however, was that the rumors were believed.<ref name=encarta2/>
At the close of the Russian Revolution of 1917, a Marxist political faction called the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd and Moscow under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party. A bloody civil war ensued, pitting the Bolsheviks' Red Army against a loose confederation of anti-socialist monarchist and bourgeois forces known as the White Army. The Red Army triumphed, and the Soviet Union was formed in 1922.
Soviet Russia
After a failed Bolshevik rising in July 1917, Lenin fled to Finland for safety. Here he wrote "State and Revolution",<ref> Template:Cite web</ref> which called for a new form of government based on workers' councils, or soviets elected and revocable at all moments by the workers. He returned to Petrograd in October, inspiring the October Revolution with the slogan "All Power to the Soviets!". Lenin directed the overthrow of the Provisional Government from the Smolny Institute from the 6th to the 8th of November 1917. The storming and capitulation of the Winter Palace on the night of the 7th to 8th of November marked the beginning of Soviet rule. On November 8, 1917, Lenin was elected as the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Russian Congress of Soviets. Lenin emphasized the importance of bringing electricity to all corners of Russia and modernising industry and agriculture. He was very concerned about creating a free universal health care system for all, the rights of women, and teaching all Russian people to read and write.<ref>Archive of Lenin's works. marxists.org</ref> On December 301922, the Russian SFSR together with three other Soviet republics formed the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union was meant to be a trans-national worker's state free from nationalism. The concept of Russia as a separate national entity was therefore not emphasized in the early Soviet Union. However, people and leaders around the world often referred to the Soviet Union as "Russia". The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic dominated the Soviet Union for its entire 74-year history.<ref name=ussr>"Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 July 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-207580></ref> The Russian Federation was by far the largest of the republics; Moscow, its capital, was also the capital of the Soviet Union.<ref name=ussr/> Although Russian institutions and cities certainly remained dominant, non-Russians participated in the new government at all levels.
After Lenin's death in 1924, a brief power struggle ensued, during which a top communist official, a Georgian named Joseph Stalin, gradually eroded the various checks and balances which had been designed into the Soviet political system and assumed dictatorial power by the end of the decade.
1927-1953
Stalin forced rapid industrialisation of the largely rural country and collectivisation of its agriculture. In 1928, Stalin introduced his "First Five-Year Plan" for modernizing the Soviet economy. Most economic output was immediately diverted to establishing heavy industry. Civilian industry was modernized and many heavy weapon factories were established. The plan worked, in some sense, as the Soviet Union successfully transformed from an agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse in an unbelievably short span of time, but widespread misery and famine ensued for many millions of people as a result of the severe economic upheaval.
Almost all Old Bolsheviks from the time of the Revolution, including Leon Trotsky, were killed or exiled. At the end of 1930s, Stalin launched the Great Purges, a massive series of political repressions. Millions of people whom Stalin and local authorities suspected of being a threat to their power were executed or exiled to Gulag labor camps in remote areas of Siberia or Central Asia. A number of ethnic groups in Russia and other republics were also forcibly resettled during Stalin's rule.
The defensive war of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, part of the World War II known in the Soviet Union and Russia as the Great Patriotic War, started with the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 221941. It was the largest theatre of war in history and was notorious for its unprecedented ferocity, destruction, and immense loss of life. The fighting involved millions of German and Soviet troops along a broad front. It was by far the deadliest single theatre of war in World War II, with over 5.5 million deaths on the Axis Forces; Soviet military deaths were about 8.6 million (out of which 3.6 million Soviets died in German captivity), and civilian deaths were about 14 to 18 million. The Eastern Front contained more combat than all the other European fronts combined; the European axis suffered 75% to 85% of all casualties there. The fate of the Third Reich was decided at Stalingrad and sealed at Kursk. The German army had considerable success in the early stages of the campaign, but they suffered defeat when they reached the outskirts of Moscow. The Red Army then stopped the Nazi offensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43, which became the decisive turning point for Germany's fortunes in the war. The Soviets drove through Eastern Europe and captured Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945. During the war, the Soviet Union lost more than 27 million citizens (including up to 18 million civilians), about half of all World War II casualties.
Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict as an acknowledged superpower. The Red Army occupied Eastern Europe after the war, including the eastern half of Germany. Stalin installed loyal communist governments in these satellite states.
During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, with control always exerted exclusively from Moscow. The Soviets extracted heavy war reparations from the areas of Germany under their control, mostly in the form of machinery and industrial equipment. The Soviet Union consolidated its hold on Eastern Europe (see Eastern bloc) and entered a long struggle with the United States and Western Europe on economic, political, and ideological dominance over the Third World. The ensuing struggle became known as the Cold War, which turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, Britain and the United States, into its foes.
1953-1985
Under Khrushchev, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, and the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth aboard the first manned spacecraft, Vostok 1. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive. Foreign policy toward China and the United States suffered reverses, notably the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Khrushchev began installing nuclear missiles in Cuba (after the United States installed Jupiter missiles in Turkey, which nearly provoked a war with the Soviet Union).
Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued until Leonid Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the pre-eminent figure in Soviet politics. Brezhnev is frequently derided by historians for stagnating the development of the Soviet Union (see "Brezhnev stagnation"). Others have acknowledged that despite its inertia and repression (though very mild relative to the Stalin years), the Brezhnev era did offer a relative prosperity to a populace and leadership battered by decades of war, famine, collectivization and crash industrialization, deadly political crises, arbitrary mass murder and arrest, and the volatility of the Khrushchev years. In 1979 the troubled nine-year Soviet war in Afghanistan began.
1985-1991
Following the short rules of Yury Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, in 1985, the reform-minded<ref> Wolf, Julie. Mikhail Gorbachev Public Broadcasting Service. "At 54, younger and healthier than his predecessors, the reform-minded Gorbachev was openly critical of Party excesses".</ref> Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. He introduced the landmark policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), in an attempt to modernize Soviet communism. Glasnost meant that the harsh restrictions on free speech that had characterized most of the Soviet Union's existence were alleviated, and open political discourse and criticism of the government became possible again. Perestroika meant sweeping economic reforms designed to decentralize the planning of the Soviet economy. However, the Stalinist system was probably beyond repair, and the Gorbachev reforms started in motion forces of change that demonstrated that meaningful reform would eventually threaten Communist Party hegemony. His initiatives also provoked strong resentment amongst conservative elements of the government, and in August of 1991 an unsuccessful military coup that attempted to remove Gorbachev from power instead led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin came to power and declared the end of exclusive Communist rule. The USSR splintered into fifteen independent republics, and was officially dissolved in December of 1991. Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin had been elected President of Russia in June 1991 in the first direct presidential election in Russian history. In October 1991, as Russia was on the verge of independence, Yeltsin announced that Russia would proceed with radical market-oriented reform along the lines of "shock therapy".
Post-Soviet Russia
Template:Main After the disintegration of the USSR, the Russian economy went through a crisis. Russia took up the responsibility for settling the USSR's external debts, even though its population made up just half of the population of the USSR at the time of its dissolution. The largest state enterprises (petroleum, metallurgy, and the like) were controversially privatized for the small sum of $US 600 million, far less than they were worth, while the majority of the population plunged into poverty. Corruption has run rampant, and the Yeltsin government has been accused of conspiring with insiders to loot countless billions in cash and assets from the State<ref>[1] "Furthermore, Khodorkovsky was considered a part of the Yeltsin-era "crony capitalism"--a freewheeling combination of politically active billionaire "oligarchs" and Boris Yeltsin's family members, who are now being purged"</ref> (for example, Yeltsin's son-in-law became the CEO of Aeroflot, Russia's largest airline).
The 1990s were plagued by armed ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus. Such conflicts took a form of separatist insurrections against federal power (most notably in Chechnya), or of ethnic/clan conflicts between local groups (e.g., in North Ossetia-Alania between Ossetians and Ingushs, or between different clans in Chechnya). Since the Chechen separatists declared independence in the early 1990s, an intermittent guerrilla war (First Chechen War, Second Chechen War) has been fought between disparate Chechen groups and the Russian military. Russia has severely disabled the Chechen rebel movement, although sporadic violence still occurs throughout the North Caucasus.<ref name=cia/>
After Yeltsin's presidency in the 1990s, the recently appointed Prime Minister (who was also head of the FSB from July 1998 through August 1999) Vladimir Putin was elected in 2000. Under Vladimir Putin, who stabilized the deteriorating Yeltsin regime, a considerable decline of political freedoms followed according to some Western mainstream media. This view is not shared by the majority of the Russian general public. High oil prices and growing internal demand boosted Russian economic growth, stimulating significant economic expansion abroad and helping to finance increased military spending. Putin's presidency has shown improvements in the Russian standard of living, as opposed to the 1990s.<ref>Template:Ru icon, Стенограмма пресс-конференции Президента России Владимира Путина. Часть I</ref> Under Putin, the economy developed significantly and currently Russia enjoys a state of rapid economical growth, averaging 6.7% annual GDP growth for the past 9 straight years.<ref name=cia/>
Politics
Template:Main According to the Constitution, the politics of Russia (the Russian Federation) take place in a framework of a federal presidential republic, whereby the President of Russia is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Russia is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
The president is elected by popular vote for a four-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 14 March 2004 (next to be held in March 2008). Ministries of the Government or "Government" composed of the premier and his deputies, ministers, and selected other individuals; all are appointed by the president. Parliament, termed the Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye, consists of two chambers, the 450-member State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma and the 176-member Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii. Constitutional justice in the court is based on the equality of all citizens.<ref name=jus> "Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 July 2007</ref> Judges are independent and subject only to the law.<ref name=jus/> Trials are to be open, and the accused is guaranteed a defense.<ref name=jus/>
Despite Freedom House's listing of Russia being "not free",<ref>freedomhouse.org Country Report:Russia</ref> Alvaro Gil-Robles (former head of the Council of Europe human rights division) states "The fledgling Russian democracy is still, of course, far from perfect, but its existence and its successes cannot be denied."<ref>Gil-Robles, Alvaro (Commissioner for Human Rights for the Council of Europe), REPORT BY MR ALVARO GIL-ROBLES, COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, ON HIS VISITS TO THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION. Council of Europe</ref> The Economist rates Russia as a "hybrid regime", which they consider "some form of democratic government".<ref name="Democracy">Kekic, Laza, Index of democracy by Economist Intelligence Unit. economist.com</ref>
Foreign relations
Russia is recognised by the international community as the continuation of the government of the USSR. This means that in international terms Russia and the USSR are the same government (as opposed to the notion of a successor, involving the replacement of one of the other). Russia continued to implement all international law and international commitments of the USSR. Russia continued the USSR's permanent membership on the UN Security Council, membership in other international organizations, the rights and obligations under international treaties and property and debts. Russia is one of the key players in international relations. As one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia has a special responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. Russia is also in the Group of Eight industrialised nations. Russia is a member of a large number of other international organizations, including the Council of Europe and OSCE. Russia takes a special role in the organizations created on the territory of the former USSR largely under the leadership of Russia : CIS, EurAsEC, CSTO, SCO. Russia has a multifaceted foreign policy. It maintains diplomatic relations with 178 countries and has 140 embassies. Russia's foreign policy is determined by the President and implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Subdivisions
- Federal subjects
The Russian Federation comprises 85 federal subjects,<ref name="Constitution">Template:Ru icon, Конституция Российской Федерации, Статья 65 (Constitution of Russia, Article 65). In 1993, when the constitution was adopted, there were 89 subjects listed. Some of them were later merged.</ref> namely:
- 47 oblasts (provinces)
- 21 republics (states) which enjoy a high degree of autonomy on most issues and which correspond to some of Russia's numerous ethnic minorities
- eight krais (territories)
- six okrugs (autonomous districts)
- two federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg)
- the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
- Federal districts
Federal subjects are grouped into seven federal districts, each administered by an envoy appointed by the President of Russia. Unlike the federal subjects, the federal districts are not a subnational level of government, but are a level of administration of the federal government. Federal districts' envoys serve as liaisons between the federal subjects and the federal government and are primarily responsible for overseeing the compliance of the federal subjects with the federal laws.
- Economic regions
For economic and statistical purposes the federal subjects are grouped into twelve economic regions. Economic regions and their parts sharing common economic trends are in turn grouped into economic zones and macrozones.
Geography and climate
Topography
The Russian Federation stretches across much of the north of the supercontinent of Eurasia. Because of its size Russia displays both monotony and diversity. As with its topography, its climates, vegetation, and soils span vast distances.<ref name=climate>Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 3 July 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-207542>.</ref> From north to south the East European Plain is clad sequentially in tundra, coniferous forest (taiga), mixed forest, broadleaf forest, grassland (steppe), and semidesert (fringing the Caspian Sea) as the changes in vegetation reflect the changes in climate.<ref name=climate/> Siberia supports a similar sequence but lacks the mixed forest.<ref name=climate/> Most of Siberia is taiga.<ref name=climate/> Russia has the world's largest forest reserves, which supply lumber, pulp and paper, and raw material for woodworking industries.<ref>"Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 July 2007</ref> With access to three of the world's oceans—the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific—Russian fishing fleets are a major contributor to the economy.<ref name=fish> "Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 3 July 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-207562>.</ref> The Caspian is the source of what is considered the finest caviar in the world.<ref name=fish/>
Most of the land consists of vast plains, both in the European part and the part of Asian territory that is largely known as Siberia. These plains are predominantly steppe to the south and heavily forested to the north, with tundra along the northern coast. Mountain ranges are found along the southern borders, such as the Caucasus (containing Mount Elbrus, Russia's and Europe's highest point at 5,642 m / 18,511 ft) and the Altai, and in the eastern parts, such as the Verkhoyansk Range or the volcanoes on Kamchatka. The more central Ural Mountains, a north-south range that form the primary divide between Europe and Asia, are also notable.
Russia has an extensive coastline of over 37,000 kilometres (23,000 mi) along the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Baltic, Black and Caspian seas.<ref name=cia>CIA World Factbook - Russia</ref> Some smaller bodies of water are part of the open oceans; the Barents Sea, White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea are part of the Arctic, whereas the Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan belong to the Pacific Ocean.
Major islands and archipelagos include Novaya Zemlya, the Franz Josef Land, the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. (See List of islands of Russia). The Diomede Islands (one controlled by Russia, the other by the United States) are just three kilometers (1.9 mi) apart, and Kunashir Island (controlled by Russia but claimed by Japan) is about twenty kilometres (12 mi) from Hokkaidō.
Russia is a water-rich country. Russia has thousands of rivers and inland bodies of water, providing it with one of the world's largest surface-water resources. The most prominent of Russia's bodies of fresh water is Lake Baikal, the world's deepest and most capacious freshwater lake.<ref name=baikal>U.S. Geological Survey, Fact Sheet: Lake Baikal - A Touchstone for Global Change and Rift Studies</ref> Lake Baikal alone contains over one fifth of the world's liquid fresh surface water.<ref name=baikal/> Truly unique on Earth, Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world.<ref> "Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 3 July 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-207539>.</ref> Many rivers flow across Russia; see Rivers of Russia. Of its 100,000 rivers, Russia contains some of the world's longest.<ref name=riv> "Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 3 July 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-207540>.</ref> The Volga is the most famous — not only because it is the longest river in Europe but also because of its major role in Russian history.<ref name=riv/>
Major lakes include Lake Baikal, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega; see List of lakes in Russia.
Russia has a wide natural resource base including major deposits of petroleum, natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, timber.<ref name=cia/>
Climate
Because of its size, Russia's climate displays both monotony and diversity.<ref name=climate/> The climate of the Russian Federation formed under the influence of several determining factors. One of the most important is the enormous size and remoteness of many areas of the sea, resulting in the dominance of the continental climate. The climates of both European and Asian Russia are continental except for the tundra and the extreme southeast.<ref name=climate/> Mountains in the south obstructing the flow of warm air masses from the Indian Ocean and the plain of the west and north makes the country open to Arctic and Atlantic influences. As a result, much of the territory there are only two distinct seasons - winter and summer; Spring and autumn are usually brief periods of change between extremely low temperatures and extremely high. The coldest month is January (on the shores of the sea - February), the warmest usually is July. Great ranges of temperature are typical.<ref name=climate/> In winter temperatures get colder both from south to north and from west to east.<ref name=climate/> Summers can be quite hot and humid, even in Siberia.<ref name=climate/> A small part of Black Sea coast around Sochi is considered in Russia to have subtropical climate, where frosts happen only occasionally.<ref>Drozdov V. A. et al. (1992). Ecological and Geographical Characteristics of the Coastal Zone of the Black Sea. GeoJournal 27.2, 169-178.</ref> The continental interiors are the driest areas.<ref name=climate/>
Fauna
Common animals in Russia:
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Borders
The most practical way to describe Russia is as a main part (a large contiguous portion with its off-shore islands) and an exclave, Kaliningrad, (at the southeast corner of the Baltic Sea).
The main part's borders and coasts (starting in the far northwest and proceeding counter-clockwise) are:<ref>"Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 July 2007</ref>
- borders with the following countries: Norway and Finland,
- a short coast on the Baltic Sea, facing eight other countries on its shores from Finland to Estonia and including the port of St. Petersburg,
- borders with Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, and Ukraine,
- a coast on the Black Sea, facing five other countries on its shores from Ukraine to Georgia,
- borders with Georgia and Azerbaijan,
- a coast on the Caspian Sea, facing four other countries on its shores from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan,
- borders with Kazakhstan, China (western), Mongolia, China (eastern), and North Korea.
- an extensive coastline that provides access to all the maritime nations of the world, and stretches
- from the North Pacific Ocean including
- the Sea of Japan (where the west shore of Russia's Sakhalin lies),
- the Sea of Okhotsk (where the east shore of Sakhalin and its Kurile Islands lie), and
- the Bering Sea,
- through the Bering Strait (where its minor island of Big Diomede is separated by only a few miles from Little Diomede, a part of the US state of Alaska),
- to the Arctic Ocean, including
- the Chukchi Sea (where the south and east shores of its Wrangel Island lie),
- the East Siberian Sea (where its west shore, and the east shores of its New Siberian Islands lie),
- the Laptev Sea (where their west shores lie),
- the Kara Sea (where the east shore of its Novaya Zemlya lies),
- the Barents Sea (where their west shore, the south shores of its Franz-Josef Land the port of Murmansk and important naval facilities lie, and where the White Sea reaches far inland).
- from the North Pacific Ocean including
The exclave, constituted by the Kaliningrad Oblast,
- shares borders with
- has a northwest coast on the Baltic Sea.
The Baltic and Black Sea coasts of Russia have less direct and more constrained access to the high seas than its Pacific and Arctic ones, but both are nevertheless important for that purpose. The Baltic gives immediate access to the nine other countries sharing its shores, and between the main part of Russia and its Kaliningrad Oblast exclave. Via the straits that lie within Denmark, and between it and Sweden, the Baltic connects to the North Sea and the oceans to its west and north. The Black Sea gives immediate access to the five other countries sharing its shores, and via the Dardanelles and Marmora straits adjacent to Istanbul, Turkey, to the Mediterranean Sea with its many countries and its access, via the Suez Canal and the Straits of Gibraltar, to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The salt waters of the Caspian Sea, the world's largest lake, provides access to the high seas only through Volga-Don Canal.
Spatial extent
The two most widely separated points in Russia are about 8,000 km (5,000 mi) apart along a geodesic (i.e. shortest line between two points on the Earth's surface). These points are: the boundary with Poland on a 60-km long (40-mi long) spit of land separating the Gulf of Gdańsk from the Vistula Lagoon; and the farthest southeast of the Kurile Islands, a few miles off Hokkaidō Island, Japan.
The points which are furthest separated in longitude are "only" 6,600 km (4,100 mi) apart along a geodesic. These points are: in the West, the same spit; in the East, the Big Diomede Island (Ostrov Ratmanova).
The Russian Federation spans eleven time zones.
Economy
Template:Main Template:Major economic indicators of Russia table More than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia is now trying to further develop a market economy and achieve much more consistent economic growth. Russia saw its comparatively developed centrally planned economy contract severely for five years, as the executive and the legislature dithered over the implementation of reforms and Russia's aging industrial base faced a serious decline.
However, Russia's economy has adapted relatively quickly from the world's largest centrally planned economy to a market economy, a significant change during which the economy initially underwent tremendous stress. A first Russian deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, set the goal of making the country one of the five largest economies in terms of GDP by 2020. "GDP per capita by consumer spending parity will be around $30,000 in 2005 prices [by 2020], compared to the current $12,000," Ivanov forecasted.<ref name=ivanov>Russia among top 5 in terms of GDP by 2020 - Ivanov. Russian News & Information Agency</ref> For the year of 2007, Russia's GDP is projected to grow to about $1.2 trillion nominally (31.2 trillion rubles) that would be about $2.3 trillion PPP and would make Russia the second largest economy in Europe.<ref>Russian government approves federal draft budget for 2007. RIA Novosti - Russian News & Information Agency</ref> Russia's economics ministry has revised forecasts for 2007 GDP growth from 6.2 to 6.5%<ref>Economics min. revises 2007 GDP growth forecast from 6.2 to 6.5%. RIA Novosti - Russian News & Information Agency</ref>
The economic development of the country has been extremely uneven: the Moscow region contributes one-third of the country's GDP while having only a tenth of its population. While the huge capital region of Moscow is a bustling, affluent metropolis living on the cutting edge of technology with a per capita income rapidly approaching that of the leading Eurozone economies, much of the country, especially its indigenous and rural communities in Asia, lags significantly behind. Market integration is nonetheless making itself felt in some other sizeable cities such as Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and Ekaterinburg, and recently also in the adjacent rural areas.
According to Russia's finance minister, investment in Russia's economy will grow by $44 billion in 2007. Alexei Kudrin said investment increased $37 billion in 2006, to $168 billion. Speaking at a conference on economic modernization, the minister predicted investment would double in 2010, to $357 billion, against 2006. According to the ministry's forecast, inflation will gradually decrease from 9% in 2006 to 5.6% in 2010, which the minister said would bring loan rates down and boost investment in fixed assets. He said Russia was expected to double its domestic debt by 2010, but that foreign borrowing was not planned. The minister said Russian borrowing from the World Bank would remain at $300-400 million for the next three or four years. Kudrin specified that investment growth would be primarily due to the private sector.<ref>Investment in Russia's economy to grow $44 bln in 2007 - minister. RIA Novosti - Russian News & Information Agency</ref>
Some experts<ref>Template:Ru icon, Пересчитать Россию</ref> believe that official statistic underestimates Russian GDP by 28% because of inaccuracy of decades old statistical system (for example, it didn’t count small enterprises and whole sectors of new economy). IMSG estimated that nominal Russian GDP reached $970 billion in 2005. On May 25, 2007 Russia's international reserves reached $402.2 billion nominally and projected to grow to $400–450 billion by the end of 2007.<ref>International Reserves assets of the Russian Federation in 2007. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation</ref> Knowing the importance of oil and gas to the economy, the Stabilization Fund of the Russian Federation was formed by the government in January 2004. This fund takes in revenues from oil and gas exports and is designed to help offset oil market volatility. This fund was also set up in order to prevent the ruble from appreciating. Russia repaid the bulk of its outstanding debt to the Paris Club of Creditor Nations on August 18-21 2006.<ref>Russia's Stabilization Fund up 74% in 10M06. RIA Novosti - Russian News & Information Agency</ref>
According to the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia, the monthly nominal