Russia

Description of Russia

Russia is the largest country in the world, with a total area of 17,075,400 square kilometers, which is about 1.8 of the USA area. The country is located in the eastern part of Europe and the northern one of Asia. The main part of the European territory of the country lies within the East European Plain. The southern boundary is located in the North Caucasus. The main part of the Asian territory of Russia is on the West Siberian Plain and the Central Siberian Plateau. The territory of Russia covers 11 time zones.

Russia shares borders with Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and North Korea on land, and with Sweden, Turkey, Japan and the United States of America by sea.

The Russian Federation is a very big country, so the climate is rather diverse: from the cold Arctic in the north of Siberia and to subtropical hot climate on the coast of the Black Sea. The climate of Russia is mostly continental, but in the north is Arctic. The severity of the climate increases moving to the east of the country; the east of Siberia is characterized by severe, long and cold winters. In the north, the country is covered with snow most of the year. The south of Russia is characterized by hot summers with quite a lot of rain, and by cold and snowy winters.

The largest rivers of Russia are Volga, Lena, Irtysh, Yenisei, Ob, and Amur. The largest lakes are the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, the Lake Baikal, the Ladoga Lake, and the Onega Lake. Russia is rich in natural resources such as large deposits of oil, natural gas, coal, timber, diamonds and gold.

The total population is about 141.7 million people, with about 73% of the urban population. The national composition of Russia consists of Russians (81.5%), Tatars (3.8%), Ukrainians (2%), Chuvash (1.2%) and others. The official language is Russian. Each Autonomous Republic uses its own language as the second official language. There are different types of religions: Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, etc.

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