Russia

Russia is the biggest country in the world, located in the Northern hemisphere and extending across much of Eurasia. It boarders with eighteen countries, including USA and Japan via ocean borders.

Russia stretches 10 thousand kilometers from West to East and about 4 thousand from North to South. The country has 11 time zones.

There are about 2.8 millions of rivers and the biggest amongst them are: Volga, Yenisei, Lena, Ob and Amur. The biggest lakes are: Baykal, Ladoga, Onega and Taymyr.

In the North-Western part of Russia, there are the two biggest lakes of Europe – Ladoga and Onega. Moreover, there is the world biggest sea in Russia – the Caspian sea, and the world’s deepest lake – Baykal Lake with depth of 1620 meters.

Land area — about 17 mln km.

Capital — Moscow city. There are 13 megapolises with population over a million in Russia: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Volgograd, Samara, Perm, Ufa, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Omsk, Chelyabinsk and Rostov-on-Don.

The country has 1030 cities, 2153 towns and countless settlements and villages.

Population — according to the census of 2005 the population is 143.3 mln people; the major part of the population resides in the European part and only 20% of population live east of the Ural mountains.

Russia has 21 autonomous Republics, 6 regions, 49 territories, two Federal cities, one autonomous territory and 10 autonomous districts.

Russia is amongst the world’s most multinational countries – there are about 160 nationalities and ethnic groups.

Religion: Orthodox Christian Church, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and several other religions.

Day of Russia: June 12.

23 historical and cultural sites are included into the heritage list of UNSECO: Kremlin with the Red Square in Moscow, Saint Petersburg Historical Center, Novgorod monuments, wooden churches in Kizhi and many others.