GENERAL INFORMATION

Russia is the largest country in the world in terms of size, occupying the area between Europe and the northern Pacific Ocean. It measures 17 million sq. km and covers eleven time zones.

The capital of Russia is Moscow. St.Petersburg is also a very important administrative, business and cultural centre and is often called the second or the Northern capital of Russia. Administratively, the Russian Federation is divided into 21 republics, 6 krays (federal territories), 2 federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg), 49 regions, 1 autonomous region and 10 autonomous areas.

Russia has the world's fifth largest population (148.8 million people) after China, India, the United States and Indonesia. It is populated by approximately 130 nations and ethnic groups, including some 130 million Russians, over 5 million Tartars, nearly 4 million Ukrainians, 1.7 million Chuvashs, 1.7 million Jews, approximately 1.3 million Bashkirs, over 1 million Byelorussians and more than 1 million Mordovians.

The largest cities are Moscow, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Yekaterinburg.  
Russia is a democratic federative republic with the presidential form of government and two-chamber parliament consisting of the State Duma and the Federation Council. The head of state is elected once in four years. The country possesses a wide array of natural resources including major deposits of oil, coal, natural gas, many strategic minerals, diamonds and timber.