Russia

Murmansk I Barents ■". Sea _ Arctic Ocean East Siberian Sea 5 'Arkhangelsk Laptev Sea<( r J R USSIA ►khotsk Sea of Okhotsk Omsk Lake Baikal U ZBEKISTAN fadivostok At 17,075,400 square kilometres, Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than oneeighth of the Earth s inhabited land area. Russia is also the world s ninth most populous nation with 143 million people as of i P OLAN D ii Lake K AZAKHSTAN Lak e I RAN Balkhash K YRGYZSTAN C HIN A MONGOLIA T AJIKISTAN C HINA A FGHANISTAN

National Symbols

Covernment Federal semi-presidential constitutional republic. v President - Vladimir Putin v Prime Minister - Dmitry Medvedev

Largest Cities Moscow (capital) 1. Saint Petersburg 2. Yekaterinburg 4. Nizhny Novgorod 5 Saint Petersburg Moscow

Russia's 160 ethnic groups speak some 100 languages. Russian is the only official state language, but the Constitution gives the individual republics the right to make their native language official in addition to Russian. Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism are Russia's traditional religions, and are all legally a part of Russia's "historical heritage".