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RUSSIAN FEDERATION
GEOGRAPHY:
Area: 17 million sq. km. (6.5 million sq. mi.); about
1.8 times the size of the United States.
Capital: Moscow
Location: Northern Asia (the part west of the Urals is
included with Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean,
between Europe and the North Pacific Ocean.
Border countries:
Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, North Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia,
Norway, Poland, Ukraine
Terrain: Broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast
coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia; uplands and
mountains (Caucasus
range) along southern borders.
BACKGROUND:
Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of
Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of
Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to
gradually conquer and absorb surrounding
principalities. In the early 17th century, a new
Romanov Dynasty continued this policy of expansion
across Siberia to the Pacific. Under Peter I (ruled
1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and
the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the
19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made
in Europe and Asia. Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of
1904-05 contributed to the Revolution of 1905, which
resulted in the formation of a parliament and other
reforms. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian
army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the
major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow
in 1917 of the imperial household. The Communists under
Vladimir Lenin seized power soon after and formed the
USSR.
The brutal rule of Josef Stalin (1924-53) strengthened
Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens
of millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society
stagnated in the following decades until General
Secretary Mikhail Gorbavhev (1985-91) introduced
glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in
an attempt to modernize communism, but his initiatives
inadvertently released forces that by December 1991
splintered the USSR into 15 independent republics. The
Russian Federation declared its independence from the
Soviet Union on 24 August 1991, and adopted its
Constitution on 12 December 1993. Since then, Russia
has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic
political system and market economy to replace the
strict social, political, and economic controls of the
communist period.
CURRENT POLITICAL CLIMATE
While some progress has been made on the economic
front, and Russia's management of its windfall oil
wealth has improved its financial standing, recent
years have seen a recentralization of power under
Vladimir Putin (a former KGB officer) and democratic
institutions remain weak. A determined guerrilla
conflict still plagues Russia in Chechnya.
International watchdog groups and other democracies are
highly critical of Putin’s tactics in handling the
conflict in Chechnya, his suppression of political
dissent, and his censorship of the media.
Other issues that face Russia are human trafficking,
drug trade, and government corruption. Russia is near
the top of Transparency International's scale of
corruption, at No. 121 out of 163 in 2006, along with
such countries as Rwanda and Burundi. Four years ago,
it had been rated 71. On that scale, the least corrupt
is Finland, while Haiti and Myanmar occupy the top two
places.
Russia 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.
POPULATION
Population : 141 million.
Ethnic groups: Russian 81%, Tatar 4%, Ukrainian 3%,
other 12%.
Religion: Russian Orthodox, Islam, Judaism, Roman
Catholicism, Protestant, Buddhist, other.
Language: Russian (official); more than 140 other
languages and dialects.
Literacy: 98%.
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 65.87 years
male: 59.12 years
female: 73.03 years
Population Growth Rate:
-0.484%
The labor force consists of 74.6 million people, of
whom 10.8% work in agriculture, 29.1% in industry, and
60.1% in services. The unemployment rate is about 6.6%
and there is considerable underemployment. About 17% of
people live below the poverty line (2004 est).
ECONOMY
Gross Domestic Product (2006): $1.746 trillion (US is
$13.6 trillion, Spain is $1.109 trillion.)
GDP per capita: $12,200 (US is $43,800, Spain is
$27,400)
Natural Resources: Russia is considered an energy
superpower. Natural resources include oil, natural gas,
coal, many strategic minerals, and timber BUT
formidable obstacles of climate, terrain , and distance
hinder exploitation of natural resources.
Land use: Only 7.17% of arable land is in use, 92. 72%
is used for other purposes, namely industry. As a
result, air pollution, deforestation and water
contamination are major environmental problems facing
Russia.
Employment Structure:
Primary Sector as percent of GDP: 4.9%. Grain, sugar
beets, sunflower seed, vegetables, fruits; beef, milk
Secondary Sector as percent of GDP: 39.3%. Industry
including complete range of mining and extractive
industries producing coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and
metals; machine building from rolling mills to highperformance aircraft and space vehicles; defense
industries including radar, missile production, and
advanced electronic components, road and rail
transportation equipment; communications equipment;
agricultural machinery and construction equipment;
electric power generating and transmitting equipment;
medical and scientific instruments; consumer durables,
textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts
Tertiary Sector as percent of GDP: 55.8%
Trade
Major Exports: petroleum and petroleum products,
natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals,
and a wide variety of civilian and military
manufactures
Export partners: Netherlands 12.3%, Italy 8.6%, Germany
8.4%, China 5.4%, Ukraine 5.1%, Turkey 4.9%,
Switzerland 4.1% (2006)
Main Imports: machinery and equipment, consumer goods,
medicines, meat, sugar, semifinished metal products
Import partners:
Germany 13.9%, China 9.7%, Ukraine 7%, Japan 5.9%,
South Korea 5.1%, US 4.8%, France 4.4%, Italy 4.3%
(2006)
Russia also receives economic aid from the US and the
EU.