Geography: Northern Asia (the area west of the Urals is considered part of Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean, between Europe and the North Pacific Ocean
Area: 17,075,200 sq km
Population: 142,893,540 (July 2006 est.)
Capital: Moscow
Language: Russian, many minority languages
Natural resources:wide natural resource base including major deposits of oil, natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, timber
note: formidable obstacles of climate, terrain, and distance hinder exploitation of natural resources
Government type: federation
Legal system: based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts
Currency: Russian ruble (RUR) The Russian Rouble (RUR) is the currency in use. The RUR is divided into 100 kopeks.
Notes and coins of the following denominations are in circulation:
Coins: Coins appear in denominations of RUR 1, 2 and 5 and 1 – 50 kopeks.
After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Russia became an independent country. By far, one of the greatest powers in the world, Russia is also the largest country in the world with a territory of 17,075,400 square kilometers and a population of approximately 141,200,000 people. Russia occupies the whole northern part of Asia and the Eastern part of Europe. The capital city is Moscow. It shares borders with 14 countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast), Ukraine, Mongolia, and Norway. Roughly, Russia can be divided into two relief regions – western and eastern and the border is in the region of Yenisey River. In this manner, the western part of country has more of a plain structure with low hills west of the Ural Mountains.
The eastern part of Russia is the more diverse region. It is dominated by mountains but there are also deserts and large lowlands. The country’s vast area and location determine its various climate and diverse temperatures from a region to a region. The mountains to the East and South prevent any influence from the Indian Ocean, but the absence of those barriers to the North and to the West allow the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean to impact the climate. Winters and summers vary greatly depending on the region which has been chosen. On the Black Sea Coast, winters are mild and summers are warm while in Siberia winters are extremely cold while summers are cool. It can be argued that there are only two seasons in Russia- winter and summer and that spring and autumn are not seasons but only transitional periods to either winter or summer.
We can trace back Russia’s heritage to 12th century when the Principality of Muscovy was able to come out of two centuries of Mongol domination and to begin enlargement of the territories around the principality. The expansion continues throughout the centuries until the rule of Peter I who set the beginning of the Russian Empire. In 1905, a parliament was established and after the revolution in 1917 a republic was established. Subsequently, the Soviet Union was formed by Vladimir Lenin. After Lenin, Iosif Stalin took over the power in the Soviet Union and earned the notoriety a cruel leader whose purpose was to strengthen the Communist power at whatever cost. During Stalin’s rule, the social life and the economy of the Soviet Union were not improving at all until Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. He tried to modernize and restructure the Communist rule so that it resembles the western model but the USSR came to an end in 1991 when it split into 15 countries including Russia. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been struggling to successfully shift to a market based economy and to eradicate any social, economic and political remains of Communism.
Ethnic Russians comprise of around 80% of the population of the country. There is a large number of numerous minorities that dwell in Russia: among these are Ukrainians Tatars, Chuvash, Armenians and others. The official and most widely spoken language is Russian but having in mind the large number of minorities there are also other languages that can be heard on Russian territory. Russian Orthodox Church was the main religious institution for around 10 centuries until Communism came into force. Although religious freedom was still guaranteed, any religious activities were forbidden and it was also against the law to a member of any organization of that type. Not until Mikhail Gorbachev’s rule things changed. As a western-oriented individual who was trying to modernize the clumsy communist economy, Gorbachev introduced glasnost (openness) which again stated the freedom of religion. After the USSR collapsed every individual was free to choose his or her own religion but due to the long time of communism a large portion of the population remain atheists. However, the Russian Orthodox Church has been claimed as a major element of the Russian cultural life.
Russia is a federation. Its currency is called Russian ruble (RUB). 1 US dollar can be exchanged for 23.358 RUB, and 1 Euro can be exchanged for 37.224 RUB.
After the collapse of the USSR, the Russian government implemented a series of reforms that had ambiguous effect on the economy. The transition to a market economy was not as smooth as expected and many large enterprises remained under state ownership. At the beginning of 1990s the Russian economy contracted by about 40%. The government depended on short-term borrowing which made the fiscal policy problems even greater. The Asian crisis in the 1990s deepened the problems, since investors did not have confidence in Russia anymore. This was a real threat for high levels of inflation which was triggered by the depreciation of the Russian currency. In the mid-1990s Russia slowly recovered from the crisis but it was disrupted by another financial crisis that led to many people losing their life savings. However, for the years following the financial crisis in the end of 1990s, Russia’s real GDP growth had averaged 7%. For the last six years, the purchasing power of the incomes in Russia has increased by 12%, while the real capital investment has grown by an average of 10% a year. The government has been running budget surpluses since 2003.
Poverty rates have also declined steadily since the beginning of the new millennium. Russia has also improved its international financial status and as a result there has been a significant increase of FDI since 2006. Russia’s foreign debt accounted for one third of the GDP in 2007. The foreign debt was largely decreased due to the high level of oil exports. Natural gas, oil, metal and timber comprise more than 80% of the exports which makes Russia dependent on the world prices of various items. Although the government main focus has been to improve the education, health, housing and agriculture sectors, the growth in those areas has been between 2 and 4% while in the private sectors such as transportation, communications, insurance, banking, and wholesale and retail trade the growth has been around 10%.
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