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Russian Federation Российская Федерация Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Hymn of the Russian Federation
Capitaland largest city	Moscow
Official languages	Russian official throughout nation; thirty others co-official in various regions
Demonym(s)	Russian
Government	Semi-presidential federal republic
• President	Vladimir Putin
• Prime Minister	Viktor Zubkov
Formation
• Founded	862 AD
• Declared	June 12 1990
• Finalised	December 25, 1991
Area
• Total	17,075,400 km (6,592,800 sq mi) (1st)
• Water (%)	13
Population
• 2006 estimate	142,754,000 (9th)
• 2002 census	145,274,019
• Density	8.3/km (21.5/sq mi) (209th)
GDP (PPP)	2006 estimate
• Total	$1.727 trillion (8th)
• Per capita	$12,096 (59th)
GDP (nominal)	2006 estimate
• Total	$979 billion (11th)
• Per capita	$6,856 (59th)
Gini (2002)	39.9 medium inequality
HDI (2004)	0.797 Error: Invalid HDI value (65th)
Currency	Ruble (RUB)
Time zone	UTC+2 to +12
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 to +13
Calling code	7
ISO 3166 code	RU
Internet TLD	.ru (.su reserved)
Rank based on IMF April 2007 data.
Russia portal

Russia (Template:Lang-ru, Rossiya), also the Russian Federation (Росси́йская Федера́ция, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; listen), is a transcontinental country extending over much of northern Eurasia (Europe and Asia). 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 enormous mineral and energy resources combined with 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 (the state of Alaska), 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, most of the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet Union (then one of the world's two Cold War superpowers, the other one being the United States) 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 internationally recognised as continuing the legal personality of the Soviet Union and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is also one of the five recognised 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.

History

Ancient Russia, Early East Slavs and Kievan Rus'

Prior to the first century, the vast lands of southern Russia were home to scattered tribes, such as Proto-Indo-Europeans and Scythians. 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 Turkic Avars.

During the period from 7th century BC to 5th 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, reigned the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas through the 8th century. Noted for their laws, tolerance, and cosmopolitanism, the Khazars were the main commercial link between the Baltic and the Muslim Abbasid empire centered in Baghdad. They were important allies of the Byzantine Empire, and waged a series of successful wars against the Arab Caliphates.

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. In the tenth to eleventh centuries this state of Kievan Rus became the largest in Europe and one of the most prosperous because of 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 Turkic 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 northeast with the colder climate and poor soil, 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. About half of the Russian population died during the Mongol invasion. 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 colonise the region.

Grand Duchy of Moscow

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, 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, Russia 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 (Russo-Crimean Wars) 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.

Tsardom of Russia

In 1547, Ivan IV was officially crowned the first Tsar of Russia. During his long reign, Ivan IV annexed the Tatar khanates (Kazan, Astrakhan) along the Volga River and transformed Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state. Ivan IV promulgated a new code of laws (Sudebnik of 1550), established the first Russian feudal representative body (Zemsky Sobor) and introduced the local self-management in rural regions. By the end of the century, Russian Cossacks established the first Russian settlements in Western Siberia. But his rule was also marked by the long and unsuccessful Livonian War against the coalition of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden for the access to the Baltic coast and sea trade. Ivan carried out a series of purges of the feudal aristocracy (which he suspected of treachery after the betrayal of prince Kurbsky). The military losses, epidemics, poor harvests weakened the state and the Crimean Tatars were able to burn down Moscow. The death of sons of Ivan combined with the famine (1601–1603) led to the civil war and foreign intervention 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 colonisation of the Asian territories was largely peaceful, in sharp contrast to the build-up of other colonial empires of the time.

Imperial Russia

Russian 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 1682-1725) defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War, forcing it to cede West Karelia and Ingria (two regions lost by Russia in the Time of Troubles), Estland, and Livland (the two latter now being Estonia and northern Latvia). This secured the access of Russia to the sea and sea trade. It was in Ingria that he founded a new capital, Saint Petersburg. Peter was largely responsible through his reforms for bringing Western European culture to 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 acquired significant territories in the west, populated mainly by Orthodox people. 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 France. 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, and Finland into the Russian Empire, and creation of the Congress Poland.

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 industrialisation. The Slavophile mood was on the rise, spearheaded by Russia's victory in the Russo-Turkish War, which forced the Ottoman Empire to recognise the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and autonomy of Bulgaria. Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867 for $7,200,000 in gold bullion. Decades of unrest and dissatisfaction stemming from the autocratic rule of the Romanov dynasty and the slow pace of reform in Russian society and suppression of the growing liberal intelligentsia culminated in the short-lived Russian Revolution of 1905, and on the eve of World War I, the position of Tsar Nicholas II and his dynasty appeared precarious.

Russia entered World War I in the aid of its ally, Serbia. Germany was Europe’s leading military and industrial power, and Austria and the Ottoman Empire were its allies in the war. Having to fight a war on three fronts while isolated from its British and French allies, the army was far from defeated, having won a number of major battles in 1916, when the Russian Revolution of 1917 broke out in February due to discontent at Nicholas II' handling of the war and distrust of his regime. 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. After a failed Bolshevik rising in July 1917, their leader, Vladimir Lenin, fled to Finland for safety. Here he wrote "State and Revolution", 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 November 8 1917. 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. The storming and capitulation of the Winter Palace on the night of the 7th to 8th of November marked the beginning of Soviet rule.

Soviet Russia

On November 8, 1917, Lenin was elected as the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Russian Congress of Soviets. Lenin emphasised 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. 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 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a peace treaty signed by the Central Powers with Soviet Russia, concluded hostilities between those countries in World War I. Russia lost the Ukraine, its Polish and Baltic territories, and Finland by signing the treaty. Following the defeat of the Central Powers and the Armistice treaty, these states became independent. Civil wars and wars against Russia ensued in Finland, Estonia and Poland. The White Army was joined by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Japan, France, Canada and the United States, along with other World War I Allied countries, in a military intervention into the Russian Civil War during the period of 1918 through 1920. The Red Army triumphed in the Civil War, and the Russian SFSR together with three other Soviet republics formed the Soviet Union on December 301922. The results of the civil war were momentous. Russia had been at war for seven years, during which time some 20,000,000 of its people had lost their lives, with the Civil War taking an estimated 15,000,000 of them. At the end of the Civil War, Russia was exhausted and near ruin. The economy was devastated along with much of the country's infrastructure; the industrial production value descended to less than one fifth of the value of 1913, and agricultural output fell similarly as severely.

The history of Russia between 1922 and 1991 is essentially the history of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union. This ideologically-based union, established in December 1922 by the leaders of the Russian Communist Party, was roughly coterminous with Russia before the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. People and leaders around the world often referred to the Soviet Union as "Russia" and its people as "Russians". The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic dominated the Soviet Union for its entire 74-year history. The Russian Federation was by far the largest of the republics; Moscow, its capital, was also the capital of the Soviet Union. Russians made up over half the population of the Soviet Union. 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 modernising the Soviet economy. Most economic output was immediately diverted to establishing heavy industry. Civilian industry was modernised 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 and party policies.

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.

At 4:00 am June 22 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union with the largest and most powerful invasion force in human history. This was to become the defensive war of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, part of World War II, known in the Soviet Union and Russia as the Great Patriotic War. 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 10.7 million (out of which 2.8–3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war (of 5.5 million) died in German captivity), and civilian deaths were about 15.9 million. The majority of lost civilians were victims of a repressive policy of Germans and their allies on an occupied territory died because of massacres, famine, absence of elementary medical aid and slave labor. The Eastern Front contained more combat than all the other European fronts combined; the German army suffered 80% to 93% 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 1942–1943, 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. Although the Soviet Union was victorious in the war, the nation lost around 27 million citizens, about half of all World War II casualties and the vast majority of Allied deaths, and had devastated the Soviet economy in the struggle.

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 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth aboard the first manned spacecraft, Vostok 1. The space race produced rapid advances in rocketry, material science, computers, and many other areas. 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"). 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 Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. He introduced the landmark policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), in an attempt to modernise Soviet communism. Glasnost meant that the harsh restrictions on free speech that had characterised 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 decentralise the planning of the Soviet economy. However, the strongly centralised 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 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 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", as recommended by the United States and IMF.

Russian Federation

After the disintegration of the USSR, the Russian economy went through a crisis, far worse than the Great Depression. The dismantling of the planned economy towards a market based one resulted in the economy being shattered, with tens of millions plunging into poverty and a severe fall in the standard of living, and triggered an explosion in corruption and organised crime. The removal of price controls caused hyperinflation and people's savings were wiped out. 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 privatised by President Boris Yeltsin to insiders (who became billionaires virtually overnight) for far less than they were worth. Corruption and nepotism has run rampant. The newly rich Russian mobsters and businesspeople looted billions in cash and assets from the State, taking wealth outside of the country in enormous capital flight. In 1993 a constitutional crisis pushed Russia to the brink of civil war. President Boris Yeltsin dissolved the country's legislature which opposed his moves to consolidate power and push forward with unpopular neoliberal reforms, resulting in legislators barricading themselves inside the White House and a mass uprising which resulted in the most deadly street fighting seen in Moscow since the Russian Revolution of 1917. Security and military elites threw their support behind Yeltsin, besieged the parliament building, and through the use of tank artillery nearly destroyed the building and cleared it of the elected legislature.

The 1990s were plagued by armed ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus. Such conflicts took a form of separatist Islamist 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.

After Yeltsin's presidency in the 1990s, the recently appointed Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, was elected in 2000. High oil prices and growing internal demand boosted Russian economic growth, stimulating significant economic expansion abroad and helping to finance increased military spending. During Putin's presidency there have been improvements in the Russian standard of living, as opposed to the 1990s. and the economy developed significantly. Russia currently enjoys a state of rapid economical growth, averaging 6.7% annual GDP growth for the past 8 straight years.

Government and politics

According to the Constitution, which was adopted by national referendum on December 12 1993 following the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, 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, consists of two chambers; the 450-member State Duma and the 176-member Federation Council. According to the Constitution of Russia, Constitutional justice in the court is based on the equality of all citizens, judges are independent and subject only to the law, and trials are to be open, and the accused is guaranteed a defense. Despite Freedom House's listing of Russia being "not free", 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." The Economist rates Russia as a "hybrid regime", where they consider "some form of democratic government" is in place.

Foreign relations

The Russian Federation (Russia) is recognised in international law as continuing the legal personality of the former Soviet Union. Russia continues to implement the international commitments of the USSR, and has assumed the USSR's permanent seat on the UN Security Council, membership in other international organisations, the rights and obligations under international treaties and property and debts. 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.

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 plays an important role in helping mediate international conflicts through the Quartet on the Middle East and the Six-party talks, and is actively engaged in promoting a peace following the Kosovo conflict. As holder of the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction in the world, Russia plays an important role in resolving issues of nuclear proliferation. Russia is a member of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations and is a member of a large number of other international organisations, including the Council of Europe, OSCE and APEC. Russia usually takes the leading role in the organisations created on the territory of the former USSR, the CIS, EurAsEC, CSTO, and the SCO. While the possibility of Russia joining the European Union in the future has been advocated and discussed, Russia aspires to be an equal partner with the EU rather than a member. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia has neither the intention of joining the EU nor of establishing any common institutions in the foreseeable future for "obvious reasons", although he advocated a strategic partnership with close integration in various dimensions including establishment of four common spaces between Russia and the EU.

The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in Russia changing from being an enemy of NATO to a much closer relationship, one that has however varied between being very warm (eg immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks) to very chilly (objections to NATO actions during the 1999 Kosovo war). The NATO-Russia Council was established in 2002 to allow the 26 Allies and the Russian Federation work together as equal partners to identify and pursue opportunities for joint action; while the possibility of Russia joining NATO in the future has been discussed, Russia has not formally joined NATO as an ally, nor has Russia expressed any desire to join NATO.

Subdivisions

Federal subjects

The Russian Federation comprises 85 federal subjects. These subjects have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council. However, they differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy.

• 47 oblasts (provinces): most common type of federal subjects, with federally appointed governor and locally elected legislature.
• 21 republics: nominally autonomous; each has its own constitution, president, and parliament. Republics are allowed to establish their own official language alongside Russian but are represented by the federal government in international affairs. Republics are meant to be home to specific ethnic minorities.
• Eight krais (territories): essentially the same as oblasts. The "territory" designation is historic, originally given to frontier regions and later also to administrative divisions that comprised autonomous okrugs or autonomous oblasts.
• Six autonomous okrugs (autonomous districts): originally autonomous entities within oblasts and krais created for ethnic minorities, their status was elevated to that of federal subjects in the 1990s. With the exception of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, all autonomous okrugs are still administratively subordinated to a krai or an oblast of which they are a part.
• One autonomous oblast (the Jewish Autonomous Oblast): originally autonomous oblasts were administrative units subordinated to krais. In 1990, all of them except the Jewish AO were elevated in status to that of a republic.
• Two federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg): major cities that function as separate regions.

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 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 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.

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. 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. Siberia supports a similar sequence but lacks the mixed forest. Most of Siberia is taiga. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves. It is often called "the lungs of Europe", second only to the Amazon Rainforest in the amount of carbon dioxide it absorbs. It provides a huge amount of oxygen for not just Europe, but the world. With access to three of the world's oceans—the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific—Russian fishing fleets are a major contributor to the world's fish supply. The Caspian is the source of what is considered the finest caviar in the world.

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 and mineral rich Ural Mountains, a north-south range that form the primary divide between Europe and Asia, are also notable. The country's potential in agriculture is enormous—with a mere 2.2% of the world's population, Russia possesses 8.9% of its arable land.

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. 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. Lake Baikal alone contains over one fifth of the world's fresh surface water. Many rivers flow across Russia; see Rivers of Russia. Of its 100,000 rivers, Russia contains some of the world's longest. 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. 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, timber and many strategic minerals.

Climate

Because of its size, Russia's climate displays both monotony and diversity. 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. 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. In winter temperatures get colder both from south to north and from west to east. Summers can be quite hot and humid, even in Siberia. A small part of Black Sea coast around Sochi is considered in Russia to have subtropical climate. The continental interiors are the driest areas.

Economy

More than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia is 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. Russia ended 2006 with its eighth straight year of growth, averaging 6.7% annually since the financial crisis of 1998, despite high negative population growth. Although high oil prices and a relatively cheap ruble initially drove this growth, since 2003 consumer demand and, more recently, investment have played a significant role. Russia is well ahead of most other resource-rich countries in its economic development, with a long tradition of education, science, and industry. Oil and gas contribute to 5.7% of GDP and the government predicts this will drop to 3.7% of Russia's GDP by 2011. In January-June 2007 foreign investment in the Russian economy doubled year-on-year, reaching $60.3 billion. Total investment in Russia's economy in 2010 will reach $360 billion, 800% growth since 2000, a Russian deputy prime minister forecast. Investment in Russia's fixed assets are expected to double on 2006 figures by 2010 and reach $370 billion in line with a conservative forecast. In 2000 total investment in fixed assets was $40 billion, giving growth of 300% by 2006. At least $1 trillion will be invested in Russia's infrastructure before 2020, the acting economic development and trade minister said in September 2007.

Over the last five years, fixed capital investments have averaged real gains greater than 10% per year and personal incomes have achieved real gains more than 12% per year. During this time, poverty has declined steadily and the middle class has continued to expand. Russia has also improved its international financial position since the 1998 financial crisis. The federal budget has run surpluses since 2001 and ended 2006 with a surplus of 9% of GDP. Over the past several years, Russia has used its stabilization fund based on oil taxes to prepay all Soviet-era sovereign debt to Paris Club creditors and the IMF. Oil export earnings have allowed Russia to increase its foreign reserves from $12 billion in 1999 to some $315 billion at yearend 2006, the third largest reserves in the world (as of October 26 2007 it stands at $441.3 billion).

Russia has the largest known natural gas reserves of any state on Earth, along with the second largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves. It is the world's leading natural gas exporter and the second leading oil exporter. 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. As of October 1 2007 it stands at $141.05 billion.

Russia's 2006 GDP was $1.723 trillion (est. PPP), the 9th highest in the world, with GDP growth of 6.8%. Growth was driven by non-tradable services and goods for the domestic market, as opposed to oil or mineral extraction and exports. The Russian economy has once again outperformed expectations, and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank forecast that Russia's GDP will grow by at least 7% in 2007. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade revised its forecast and projects that GDP will grow 7.3% in 2007.

The economic development of the country has been extremely uneven geographically: 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 an affluent metropolis, much of the country, especially indigenous and rural communities in Asia, lags significantly behind. Nevertheless, market integration is being felt throughout the country. The middle class has grown from just 8 million in 2000 to 55 million in 2006, estimates Expert, a market research firm in Moscow.

The average salary has increased to $540 (about $920 PPP) per month in August 2007, from $65 per month in August 1999.

Russia's macroeconomic performance in recent years has been impressive. High oil prices and large capital inflows have contributed importantly to this success, but a principal factor has been the combination of strong growth in productivity, real wages, and consumption. Very high levels of education and societal involvement achieved by the majority of the population, including women and minorities, secular attitudes, mobile class structure, and better integration of various minorities into the mainstream culture set Russia far apart from the majority of the so-called developing countries and even some developed nations.

The country is also benefiting from rising oil prices and has been able to substantially reduce its formerly huge foreign debt. However, equal redistribution of capital gains from the natural resource industries to other sectors is still a problem. Nonetheless, since 2003, exports of natural resources started decreasing in economic importance as the internal market has strengthened considerably, largely stimulated by intense construction, as well as consumption of increasingly diverse goods and services.

Armed Forces

After the dissolution of the USSR, in 1991, Russia assumed control of Soviet assets abroad, and received the lion's share of the Soviet Union's production facilities and military forces. About 70% of the former Soviet Union's defense industries are located in the Russian Federation. The Russian military is divided into the Ground Forces, Navy, and Air Force. There are also three independent arms of service: Strategic Rocket Forces, Military Space Forces, and the Airborne Troops. Russia ranks at or near the top of many metrics of military power including in numbers of tanks, fighter aircraft and naval vessels; it has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. It also has the second largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines, and is the only country apart from the U.S. with a modern strategic bomber force. The country has a large and fully indigenous arms industry, producing all of its own military equipment. As of 2005, 330,000 men are brought into the army via conscription annually, though the Armed Forces are from 2008 reducing the conscription term from two years to one, and planning to have volunteer servicemen to compose 70% of the armed forces by 2010.

Defence spending is consistently increasing by at least a minimum of one-third year on year, leading to overall defence expenditure almost quadrupling over the past six years, and according to Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, this rate is to be sustained through 2010. Official government military spending for 2007 was $32.4 billion, though various sources, including US intelligence, and the US Department of Defence, have estimated Russia’s military expenditures to be considerably higher than the reported amount. By some estimates, overall Russian defence expenditure is now at the second highest in the world after the USA. The recent steps towards modernisation of the Armed Forces has been made possible by Russia's spectacular economic resurgence. Currently, the military is in the middle of a major equipment upgrade, with the government in the process of spending about $200 billion (what equals to about $400 billion in PPP dollars) on development and production of military equipment between 2006–2015. Russia is the world's top supplier of weapons, a spot it has held since 2001, accounting for around 30% of worldwide weapons sales. Russia is the principal weapons supplier of China and India, and provides weapons to Iran, Algeria, Venezuella and other countries. Recent arms deals seem to show that Russia is building on its former influence, both in the Middle East and in Latin America.

Demographics

In July 2007 the population of Russia was estimated to be 141,377,752. The Russian Federation is home to as many as 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples. As of the 2002 Russian census, 79.8% of the population is ethnically Russian, 3.8% Tatar, 2% Ukrainian, 1.2% Bashkir, 1.1% Chuvash, 0.9% Chechen, 0.8% Armenian, and 10.3% other or unspecified. Though Russia's population is large, its population density is low because of its enormous size; its population is densest in European Russia, near the Ural Mountains, and in the southwest Siberia. About 75% of the population live in urban areas. As of the 2002 Census, the two largest cities in Russia are Moscow (10,342,151 inhabitants) and Saint Petersburg (4,661,219). Eleven other cities had between one and two million inhabitants: Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Ufa, Volgograd, and Yekaterinburg. There are currently about 10 million illegal labor migrants from the ex-Soviet states in Russia.

Education and health

Russia's free, widespread and in-depth educational system, inherited with almost no changes from the Soviet Union and guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution, is one of the best mass education systems in the world, producing 100% literacy. Entry to higher education is highly competitive. Universities have been transitioning to a new degree structure similar to that of Britain and the USA; a four year Bachelor's degree and two year Master's degree. As a result of great emphasis on science and technology in education, Russian medical, mathematical, scientific, and space and aviation research is generally of a high order.

The Russian Constitution guarantees everyone the right to receive higher education free of charge on a basis of competition (anybody who can pass entrance exams). The Government allocates funding to pay the tuition fees within an established quota / number of students for each state institution. This is considered crucial because it provides access to higher education to all skilled students, as opposed to only those who can afford it. In addition, students are provided with a small stipend and free housing. The downside of this system is that institutions have to be funded entirely from the federal and regional budgets; therefore, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, expenses on education took a big blow; institutions found themselves unable to provide adequate teachers' salaries, students' stipends, and to maintain their facilities. To address the issue, many state institutions started to open commercial positions. The number of those positions has been growing steadily since then. Many private higher education institutions have emerged, mostly in the fields where the Soviet system was inadequate or was unable to provide enough specialists for post-Soviet realities, such as economics, business/management, and law.

Russia's constitution guarantees free, universal health care for all Russian citizens. While Russia has more physicians, hospitals, and health care workers than almost any other country in the world, it has struggled to provide high levels of health care services. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the health of the Russian population has declined considerably, a result of social, economic, and lifestyle changes. As of 2006, the average life expectancy in Russia is 59.12 years for males and 73.03 years for females. The biggest factor contributing to this relatively low life expectancy is a high mortality rate among working-age males from preventable causes (e.g., alcohol, stress, smoking, traffic accidents, violent crimes). In 2006, the federal statistics agency reported that Russia's population shrunk by about 700,000 people, dipping to 142.8 million. The primary causes of Russia's population decrease are a high death rate and low birth rate. While Russia's birth-rate is comparable to that of other European countries (eg Russia's birth rate is 10.92 per 1000 people compared to the European Union average of 10.00 per 1000) its population declines at much greater rate due to a substantially higher death rate. Heart disease claims proportionately more lives than in most of the rest of the world. Death rates from homicide, suicide, car accidents and cancer are also especially high. Smoking also contributes to the demographic crisis, with more than 300,000 lives lost each year as a result of tobacco use.

In an effort to stem Russia’s demographic crisis, starting 1 January 2007 the government doubled monthly child support payments and offered a one-time payment of 250,000 Rubles (around US$10,000) to women who had a second child. In the first six months of 2007 Russia has seen the highest birth rate since the collapse of the USSR. The First Deputy PM indicated that the number of childbirths increased 6.5 percent in the first half of 2007, while the number of deaths fell the same 6.5 percent. The First Deputy PM also said about 20 billion roubles (about US$1 billion) will be invested in new prenatal centres in Russia in 2008–2009. Russia is the second country in the world by the number of immigrants from abroad, mostly from other CIS countries (In 2005, 95% of documented migrants came from other CIS countries. They are mainly Russians or Russian speakers), and immigration is increasingly seen as necessary to sustain the country's population.

Language and religion

The Russian language, renowned for its richness and flexibility, is the only official state language, but the Constitution gives the individual republics the right to make their native language co-official next to Russian. Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three (or, according to some authorities, four) living members of the East Slavic languages; the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn, often considered a dialect of Ukrainian). Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards. Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian. It is also applied as a means of coding and storage of universal knowledge—60–70% of all world information is published in English and Russian languages. Russian also is a necessary accessory of world communications systems (broadcasts, air- and space communication, etc). Because of the status of the Soviet Union as a superpower, Russian had great political importance in the 20th century. Hence, the language is still one of the official languages of the United Nations.

Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism are Russia’s traditional religions, deemed part of Russia's "historical heritage" in a law passed in 1997. Estimates of believers widely fluctuate between sources, and some reports put the number of non-believers in Russia as high as 24–48% of the population. Russian Orthodoxy is the dominant religion in Russia (Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as well as other orthodox denominations). The ancestors of today’s Russians adopted Orthodox Christianity in the 10th century. According to a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, 63% of respondents considered themselves Russian Orthodox, 6% of respondents considered themselves Muslim and less than 1% considered themselves either Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant or Jewish. Another 12% said they believe in God, but did not practice any religion, and 16% said they are non-believers.

However, the vast majority of Orthodox believers do not attend church on a regular basis. Nonetheless, the church is widely respected by both believers and nonbelievers, who see it as a symbol of Russian heritage and culture. Small numbers of other Christian demoninations exist (Roman Catholics, Armenian Gregorian and Protestants).

It is estimated that Russia has some 15-20 million Muslims. Russia is also home to an estimated 3 million to 4 million Muslim migrants from the ex-Soviet states. Most Muslims live in the Volga-Ural region, as well as in the North Caucasus, Moscow, St. Petersburg and western Siberia. In Russia there are more than 6,000 mosques (in 1991 it was about one hundred). Buddhism is traditional for three regions of the Russian Federation: Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia. Some residents of the Siberian and Far Eastern regions, Yakutia, Chukotka, etc., practice pantheistic and pagan rites, along with the major religions. Induction into religion takes place primarily along ethnic lines. Slavs are overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian. Turkic speakers are predominantly Muslim, although several Turkic groups in Russia are not.

Culture

Russian literature is considered to be among the most influential literature in the world. Russia has a rich literary history, beginning with the poet Alexander Pushkin, considered the greatest Russian poet and often described as the "Russian Shakespeare". In the nineteenth century Russian literature underwent an astounding golden age, beginning with the poet Pushkin and culminating in two of the greatest novelists in world literature, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky and in one of the greatest playwrights Anton Chekhov. Russia has remained a leading nation in literature since that time. Significant Russian writers of the Soviet period were Boris Pasternak, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Mayakovski, Mikhail Sholokhov, and the poets Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky.

Russia is a large and culturally diverse country with dozens of ethnic groups; each with their own forms of folk music. Music in 19th century Russia was defined by the tension between classical composer Mikhail Glinka and his followers, who embraced a Russian national identity and added religious and folk elements to their compositions, and the Russian Musical Society led by composers Anton and Nikolay Rubinstein, which was musically conservative. The later Romantic tradition of Tchaikovsky was brought into the 20th century by Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the last great champions of the Romantic style of European classical music. World-renowned composers of the 20th century included Scriabin, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. During the Soviet Era, music was highly scrutinised and kept within a conservative, accessible idiom in conformity with Soviet expectations. Russian conservatories have turned out generations of world-renowned soloists. Among the best known are violinists David Oistrakh and Gidon Kremer, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, pianists Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels, and vocalist Galina Vishnevskaya.

Russia has a revered and recognised tradition of ballet. Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed the most famous works of ballet—Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty. During the early 20th century, Russian dancers Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky rose to fame, and Ballets Russes' travels abroad profoundly influenced the development of dance worldwide. Soviet ballet preserved the perfected 19th century traditions, and the Soviet Union's choreography schools produced one internationally famous star after another, including Maya Plisetskaya, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. The Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Kirov in St. Petersburg remain famous throughout the world.

While in the industrialised nations of the West, motion pictures had first been accepted as a form of cheap recreation and leisure for the working class, Russian filmmaking came to prominence following the 1917 revolution when it explored editing as the primary mode of cinematic expression. Russian and later Soviet cinema was a hotbed of invention in the period immediately following the 1917 revolution, resulting in world-renowned films such as Battleship Potemkin. Soviet-era filmmakers, most notably Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, would become some of the world's most innovative and influential directors. Eisenstein also was a student of filmmaker and theorist Lev Kuleshov, who formulated the groundbreaking editing process called montage at the world's first film school, the All-Union Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. Similarly important was Dziga Vertov, whose kino-glaz (“film-eye”) theory—that the camera, like the human eye, is best used to explore real life—had a huge impact on the development of documentary filmmaking and cinema realism.

In 1932 Stalin made Socialist Realism the state policy, which stifled creativity but many Soviet films in this style were artistically successful, including Chapaev, The Cranes Are Flying and Ballad of a Soldier. The 1980s and '90s were a period of crisis in Russian cinema. Although Russian filmmakers became free to express themselves, state subsidies were drastically reduced, and both the quality and quantity of cinema declined. Recent years have brought increased viewership and subsequent prosperity to the industry on the back of the economy's rapid development, and production levels are already higher than in Britain and Germany. Russia's total box-office revenue in 2006 was $412 million (in 1996 revenues stood at $6 million). Russian cinema continues to receive international recognition. Russian Ark (2002) was the first feature film ever to be shot in a single take.

Traditional Russian cuisine is an important part of Russian national culture. Russian cuisine is one of the most popular and widely spread in the world and derives its rich and varied character from the vast and multicultural expanse of Russia. Its foundations were laid by the peasant food of the rural population in an often harsh climate, with a combination of plentiful fish, poultry, game, mushrooms, berries, and honey. Crops of rye, wheat, barley, and millet provided the ingredients for a plethora of breads, pancakes, cereals, kvass, beer, and vodka. Flavourful soups and stews centred on seasonal or storable produce, fish, and meats. Pies have always been a par of the holiday fare. The pies are customarily filled with different kinds of meat, fish, and berries. Large areas covered by woods and forests were abundant in berries and mushrooms. Russian cuisine was renowned for diverse delicacies, especially refreshments (zakuski), made of fish, yielded by Russian rivers, lakes and seas. Soups and stews that were made from the poultry and meats that were hunted, were richly flavored and popular meals throughout the cold winter months.

Bread is a staple of Russian cuisine. Heavy and meaty, with a characteristic 'sour' taste, Russian rye bread is nearly hearty enough to be a meal in and of itself, and a meal is not complete without bread. Furthermore, Russian cuisine represents a wonderful bouquet of many cultural traditions and influences that have been absorbed over many centuries. For instance, a drink as Russian today as tea, was brought to Russia as the most precious gift from a Mongolian khan. Today Russia is the largest importer of tea in the world, and Russians drink tea 3–5 times a day. Tea has always been served with candies, pies, pryaniki (Russian gingerbread) and pastries. As centuries passed, growing contacts with Western countries led to numerous incorporations in Russian cooking, enriching Russian cookery. Smoked meat, pastry cooking, wines and chocolate are a few culinary items that were introduced in the 16th to the 18th century. Although most of these refined foods were only available to the rich and aristocratic circles in Russia, it added to the Russian cuisine and meals that would become traditional Russian dishes. Primordial Russian products such as caviar, smetana (sour cream), buckwheat, rye flour, etc. have had a great influence on world-wide cuisine.

Sports

Russia is a keen sporting country, successful at a number of sports and continuously finishing in the top rankings at the Olympic games. During the Soviet era the team placed first in the total number of medals won at 14 of its 18 appearances; with these performances, the USSR was the dominant Olympic power of its era. Since the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 and continuing today, the Soviet and later Russian athletes never went below third place in the world (never below 2nd until the most recent Olympics), in number and gold medals collected at the Summer Olympics. The 1980 Summer Olympic Games were held in Moscow while the 2014 Winter Olympics will be hosted by Sochi. Soviet gymnasts and track-and-field athletes (male and female), weight lifters, wrestlers, and boxers were consistently among the best in the world. Even since the collapse of the Soviet empire, Russian athletes have continued to dominate international competition in these areas.

As in most of the world, football enjoys wide popularity in Russia. Russia's ice hockey team has a long history of traditions and success. Although ice hockey was only introduced during the Soviet era, the national team soon dominated the sport internationally, winning gold at almost all the Olympics and World Championships they contested. Many Russian players now ply their trade in the NHL. Figure skating is another popular sport; in the 1960s the Soviet Union rose to become a dominant power in figure skating, especially in pairs skating and ice dancing. At every Winter Olympics from 1964 until the present day, a Soviet or Russian pair has won gold, often considered the longest winning streak in modern sports history. Since the end of the Soviet era tennis has grown in popularity and Russia has produced a number of famous tennis players. Russia has had no peer on the international chess scene. Chess is a favourite pastime, and a sport that has been dominated by Russians in the post-war (1945–) era. From 1948, Soviet and Russian grandmasters have held the title of world champion almost continuously. Other sports widely played in Russia include weightlifting, gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, martial arts, volleyball, athletics, basketball and skiing.

See also

Template:Russian topics

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98. International Reserves assets1 of the Russian Federation in 2007 The Central Bank of the Russian Federation
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104. Putin’s Economy—Eight Years On russiaprofile.org
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111. Rice: Russia's Military Moves 'a Problem'
112. International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance, previous editions
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122. Russia cracking down on illegal migrants
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