Russia

Official name: the Russian Federation

Political system: Federal Republic

The head of the state: President

Legislature: Two-chamber Federal Assembly

Geographical location: in the Eastern Europe and Northern Asia

Border countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, China, the Chinese National Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, USA, Ukraine, Finland, Estonia and Japan

Area: 17,075 million sq. km

Population: approximate 141,38 million people (2007), Russians - 81,5%, Tatars - 3,8%, Ukrainians - 3%, Chuvashs, Bashkirs, Belarussians, Moldavians and others - 11,7% (in total more than 180 nations)

Capital: Moscow - 10,454 million people

Major cities: Saint-Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Omsk, Kazan, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Perm

Official language: Russian

Religions: Orthodox, Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists

Climate: from sea on the far North-West to arctic and subarctic on the far North and the Northern islands sharply continental in Siberia, monsoon on the Far East and subtropical on the South

Average temperature: from -50 °C to 0°C in January; from + 1 °C to +25°C in July

Monetary unit: rouble (RUR)

Telephone country code: 7

International country code: RUS

Internet domain: .ru

National holidays: May, 9th - the Victory Day (1945); June, 12th - the National Sovereignty Declaration Day (1990); December, 12th - the Constitution Day (1993)

Major tourist sights: over 100 preserves and national parks (including Altay mountain preserve, Kurshskaya Cosa preserve, Sikhote-Alin preserve, Vrangel Island arctic preserve); Volga, Ob, Yenisey, Lena, Amur rivers, Baikal lake, Uvs-Nuur lakes, the Black sea resorts, peaks of Caucasus mountains and Caucasian Mineralnye Vody resorts, Terletskoye lake in Altay mountains, geysers and volcanoes of Kamchatka, forests of the Komi Republic; in Moscow: the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin Mausoleum, Armory, St.Basil's Cathedral, the Bolshoy Theatre, Temple of the Christ of the Savior, Tretyakov Art Gallery, Borodino Panorama Memorial, Andrey Rublyov Museum, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Kuskovo, Kolomenskoye, Ostankino, Tsaritsino, Arkhangelskoye Estate Museums, Trinity-Sergiev Lavra in Sergiev Posad, Novodevichy Convent Ensemble; in Saint-Petersburg: Hermitage, Russian Arts Museum, St.Isaac's Cathedral, Peter and Paul Fortress, Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Peterhoff, Pavlovsk, Tsar Selo (Pushkin), Gatchina, Strelna Palace and Garden Ensembles, Oranienbaum; ancient Russian towns of "The Golden Ring": Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov Veliky, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Suzdal, Vladimir, Sergiev Posad, Yuriev, Uglich; Historical and Architectural Museum preserve in Smolensk, the Kremlin and Ivan the Terrible Palace in Vologda, Kizhi wooden Architectural Museum, the Kremlin and other Historical Monuments in Veliky Novgorod, Solovetsky Fortress-Monastery on the White sea, Pskovo-Pechorsky Monastery and "Pushkinsky Gory" Museum preserve in Pskov, the Kremlin in Kazan, Derbent Fortress, Historical and Architectural Museum preserve in Tobolsk, "Stalingrad Battle" Panorama-Museum (1942) and Mamaev Barrow Memorial in Volgograd.