Norway
Travel Russia Destination Guide
BACKGROUND INFO
Full Name
Russian Federation
Capital City
Moscow
Area
17,075,200 sq km
Population
144,530,000
Time Zone
GMT/UTC +3
GMT/UTC +2
GMT/UTC +4
GMT/UTC +5
GMT/UTC +8
GMT/UTC +10
GMT/UTC +12
Daylight Saving Start
end of March
Daylight Saving End
end of October
Weights Measures System
Metric
Geography
Despite the disintegration of its empire, Russia is still huge - stretching from the borders with Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine and Turkey in the west, passing Kazakstan, Mongolia and China, to reach the Pacific Ocean some 6000km (3728mi) later. The landscape is predominantly flat, punctuated only by the Urals, which rise no higher than 1900m (6233.5ft), and the more substantial ranges of the Far East. The three major rivers west of the Urals - the Dnieper, Don and Volga - all rise within 400km (249mi) of Moscow and flow south into the Black and Caspian Seas. Siberia, with all its connotations of tundra, steppes, ranges, exile and mindblowing nothingness, begins at the Urals and runs to the Udokan Mountains, just east of Lake Baikal. The Russian Far East is the massive chunk of taiga at the end, including the Sakha Republic and the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Languages
• Russian (official)
Russian is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world. Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is based on Greek.
People
81% Russian, 4% Tatar, 3% Ukrainian and numerous ethnic minorities
Religion
Russian Orthodox, Islam, Animist, Jewish, Buddhist
Government Type
Federation
Government Leaders
Dmitry Medvedev
President (head of state)
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
Prime Minister (head of government)
Country Dialing Code
7
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