Russia

Russian Federation
Российская Федерация (Russian)
Anthem: 
Государственный гимн Российской Федерации
Gosudarstvennyy gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii
"State Anthem of the Russian Federation"
Russian Federation (orthographic projection) - All Territorial Disputes.svg
Map of Russia-en.svg
Capital
and largest city
Moscow
55°45′21″N 37°37′02″E / 55.75583°N 37.61722°E / 55.75583; 37.61722
Official
and national language
Russian[3]
Recognised national languagesSee Languages of Russia
Ethnic groups
(2021, including Russia and Crimea)[4]
Religion
(2012)[6]
  • 38.2% no religion
  • 6.5% Islam[b]
  • 2.4% other (including Buddhism)[5]
  • 5.5% unanswered
Demonym(s)Russian
GovernmentFederal semi-presidential republic under an authoritarian dictatorship[7][8][9][10]
• President
Vladimir Putin
Mikhail Mishustin
Valentina Matviyenko
Vyacheslav Volodin
Vyacheslav Lebedev
LegislatureFederal Assembly
Federation Council
State Duma
Formation
879
1157
1263
16 January 1547
2 November 1721
15 March 1917
30 December 1922
12 June 1990
12 December 1991
12 December 1993
8 December 1999
Area
• Total
17,098,246 km2 (6,601,670 sq mi)[11] (within internationally recognised borders) 17,234,028 km2 (6,654,095 sq mi) (including claimed territories) (1st)
• Water (%)
13[12] (including swamps)
Population
• 2022 estimate
(9th)
• Density
8.4/km2 (21.8/sq mi) (181st)
GDP (PPP)2022 estimate
• Total
Increase $4.771 trillion[15]
• Per capita
Increase $33,263[15]
GDP (nominal)2022 estimate
• Total
Increase $2.215 trillion[15]
• Per capita
Increase $15,444[15]
Gini (2020)Positive decrease 36.0[16]
medium
HDI (2021)Increase 0.822[17]
very high · 52nd
CurrencyRuble () (RUB)
Time zoneUTC+2 to +12
Driving sideright
Calling code+7
ISO 3166 codeRU
Internet TLD

Russia (Russian: Россия, romanizedRossiya, [rɐˈsʲijə]), or the Russian Federation,[c] is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across eleven time zones and shares land boundaries with fourteen countries.[d] It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country. The country's capital and largest city is Moscow. Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-largest city. Other major urban areas in the country include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Kazan.

The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the Grand Duchy of Moscow growing to become the Tsardom of Russia. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers, developing into the Russian Empire, which remains the third-largest empire in history. However, with the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule was abolished and eventually replaced by the Russian SFSR—the world's first constitutionally socialist state. Following the Russian Civil War, the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union with three other Soviet republics, within which it was the largest and principal constituent. At the expense of millions of lives, the Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialisation in the 1930s, and later played a decisive role for the Allies of World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front. With the onset of the Cold War, it competed with the United States for global ideological influence; the Soviet era of the 20th century saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements, including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space.

In 1991, the Russian SFSR emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the independent Russian Federation. A new constitution was adopted, which established a federal semi-presidential system. Since the turn of the century, Russia's political system has been dominated by Vladimir Putin, under whom the country has experienced democratic backsliding and a shift towards authoritarianism. Russia has been involved militarily in a number of post-Soviet conflicts, which has included the internationally unrecognised annexations of Crimea in 2014 from neighbouring Ukraine, followed by the further annexation of four other regions in 2022 during an ongoing invasion.

Internationally, Russia ranks amongst the lowest in measurements of democracy, human rights and freedom of the press; the country also has high levels of perceived corruption. The Russian economy ranks 11th by nominal GDP, relying heavily upon its abundant natural resources. Its mineral and energy sources are the world's largest, and its figures for oil production and natural gas production rank high globally. The Russian GDP ranks 65th by per capita, Russia possesses the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, and has the third-highest military expenditure. The country is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council; a member state of the G20, the SCO, BRICS, the APEC, the OSCE, and the WTO; and is the leading member state of post-Soviet organizations such as the CIS, the CSTO, and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Russia is home to 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

  1. ^ Pifer, Steven (17 March 2020). "Crimea: Six years after illegal annexation". Brookings Institute. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference chapple-2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Chevalier, Joan F. (2006). "Russian as the National Language: An Overview of Language Planning in the Russian Federation". Russian Language Journal. American Councils for International Education ACTR / ACCELS. 56: 25–36. JSTOR 43669126.
  4. ^ "Национальный состав населения". Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  5. ^ Shevchenko, Nikolay (21 February 2018). "Check out Russia's Kalmykia: The only region in Europe where Buddhism rules the roost". Russia Beyond. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  6. ^ "Арена: Атлас религий и национальностей" [Arena: Atlas of Religions and Nationalities] (PDF). Среда (Sreda). 2012. See also the results' main interactive mapping and the static mappings: "Religions in Russia by federal subject" (Map). Ogonek. 34 (5243). 27 August 2012. Archived from the original on 21 April 2017. The Sreda Arena Atlas was realised in cooperation with the All-Russia Population Census 2010 (Всероссийской переписи населения 2010), the Russian Ministry of Justice (Минюста РФ), the Public Opinion Foundation (Фонда Общественного Мнения) and presented among others by the Analytical Department of the Synodal Information Department of the Russian Orthodox Church. See: "Проект АРЕНА: Атлас религий и национальностей" [Project ARENA: Atlas of religions and nationalities]. Russian Journal. 10 December 2012.
  7. ^ Martin Krzywdzinski (2020). Consent and Control in the Authoritarian Workplace: Russia and China Compared. Oxford University Press. pp. 252–. ISBN 978-0-19-252902-2. OCLC 1026492383. officially a democratic state with the rule of law, in practice an authoritarian dictatorship
  8. ^ "Russia: Freedom in the World 2023 Country Report". Freedom House. 20 July 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference cia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference authoritarianness was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ "World Statistics Pocketbook 2016 edition" (PDF). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Statistics Division. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  12. ^ "The Russian federation: general characteristics". Federal State Statistics Service. Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2008.
  13. ^ Including 2,482,450 people living on the annexed Crimean Peninsula Том 1. Численность и размещение населения. Russian Federal State Statistics Service (in Russian). Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  14. ^ a b Предварительная оценка численности постоянного населения на 1 января 2022 года и в среднем за 2021 год [Preliminary estimated population as of 1 January 2022 and on the average for 2021] (XLS). Russian Federal State Statistics Service (in Russian). Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  15. ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2023". International Monetary Fund.
  16. ^ "GINI index (World Bank estimate) – Russian Federation". World Bank. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  17. ^ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 8 September 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  18. ^ "Russia", The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 2022, retrieved 14 October 2022


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