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Revision as of 02:25, 5 May 2004 by 210.240.188.81 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Russians (Русские) are an ethnic group of East Slavic people, which live primarily in Russia and neighboring countries.
Note: sometimes the term “Russian” is used to refer to any citizen of Russia. In the Russian language there are two separate words, one for an ethnic Russian and one for a person of any ethnicity that holds a Russian citizenship. Ethnic Russians make up about 82% of the population of Russia.
Population
Russians are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world with a population of about 150 million people worldwide. Roughly 120 million ethnic Russians live in Russia and 28 million more live in the near abroad, countries neighboring Russia. A relatively small number of Russians, around 2 million, live elsewhere in the world, mostly in North America and Western Europe.
Religion
Russians are predomiantly of the Orthodox Christian faith, more specifically most belong to the Russian Orthodox Church.