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(Rossiya), also the Russian Federation, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; listen is a transcontinental
country extending over much of northern Eurasia (Europe and Asia). With an area
of 17,075,400 km², Russia is the largest country in the world, covering almost
twice the total area of the next-largest country, Canada, and has unparalleled
mineral and energy resources combined with the world's ninth-largest population.
Russia shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from
northwest to southeast): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North
Korea. It is also close to the United States (the state of Alaska), Sweden, and
Japan across relatively small stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic
Sea, and La Pérouse Strait, respectively). Formerly
the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), a republic of the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia became the Russian Federation following
the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. After the Soviet era, more
than half of the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet Union
(then one of the world's two Cold War superpowers, the other one being the United
States) passed on to the Russian Federation. Russia
is considered to be an energy superpower. Russia is internationally recognized
as continuing the legal personality of the Soviet Union and is a permanent member
of the United Nations Security Council. It is also one of the five recognised
nuclear weapons states and possesses the world's largest stockpile of weapons
of mass destruction. Russia is the leading nation of the Commonwealth of Independent
States, and a member of the G8 as well as other international organizations. Geography The
Russian Federation stretches across much of the north of the super-continent of
Eurasia. Because of its size, Russia displays both monotony and diversity. As
with its topography, its climates, vegetation, and soils span vast distances.
From north to south the East European Plain is clad sequentially in tundra, coniferous
forest (taiga), mixed and broad-leaf forests, grassland (steppe), and semi-desert
(fringing the Caspian Sea) as the changes in vegetation reflect the changes in
climate. Siberia supports a similar sequence but is taiga Topography The
two widest separated points in Russia are about 8,000 km (5,000 mi) apart along
a geodesic (i.e. shortest line between two points on the Earth's surface). These
points are: the boundary with Poland on a 60 km long (40-mi long) spit of land
separating the Gulf of Gdansk from the Vistula Lagoon; and the farthest southeast
of the Kurile Islands, a few miles off Hokkaido Island, Japan. The points which
are furthest separated in longitude are 6,600 km (4,100 mi) apart along a geodesic.
These points are: in the West, the same spit; in the East, the Big Diomede Island
(Ostrov Ratmanova). The Russian Federation spans eleven time zones. Russia
has the world's largest forest reserves and is known as "the lungs of Europe,"
second only to the Amazon Rainforest in the amount of carbon dioxide it absorbs.
It provides a huge amount of oxygen for not just Europe, but the world. With access
to three of the world's oceans—the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific—Russian
fishing fleets are a major contributor to the world's fish supply. The Caspian
is the source of what is considered the finest caviar in the world. Most
of Russia consists of vast stretches of plains that are predominantly steppe to
the south and heavily forested to the north, with tundra along the northern coast.
Mountain ranges are found along the southern borders, such as the Caucasus (containing
Mount Elbrus, Russia's and Europe's highest point at 5,642 m / 18,511 ft) and
the Altai, and in the eastern parts, such as the Verkhoyansk Range or the volcanoes
on Kamchatka. The Ural Mountains form a north-south range that divides Europe
and Asia, rich in mineral resources. Russia possesses 8.9% of the world's arable
land. Russia has
an extensive coastline of over 37,000 kilometers (23,000 mi) along the Arctic
and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Baltic, Black and Caspian seas. The Barents
Sea, White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk
and the Sea of Japan are linked to Russia. Major
islands and archipelagos include Novaya Zemlya, the Franz Josef Land, the New
Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. The Diomede
Islands (one controlled by Russia, the other by the United States) are just three
kilometers (1.9 mi) apart, and Kunashir Island (controlled by Russia but claimed
by Japan) is about twenty kilometers (12 mi) from Hokkaido. Russia
has thousands of rivers and inland bodies of water, providing it with one of the
world's largest surface water resources. The most prominent of Russia's bodies
of fresh water is Lake Baikal, the world's deepest and most capacious freshwater
lake. Lake Baikal alone contains over one fifth of the world's fresh surface water. Many
rivers flow across Russia; see Rivers of Russia. Of its 100,000 rivers, Russia
contains some of the world's longest. The Volga is the most famous—not only
because it is the longest river in Europe but also because of its major role in
Russian history. Major lakes include Lake Baikal, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega;
see List of lakes in Russia. Russia has a wide natural resource base including
major deposits of petroleum, natural gas, coal, timber and mineral resources unmatched
by any other country. Climate Owing
to its size, Russia's climate also displays both monotony and diversity. The climate
of the Russian Federation formed under the influence of several determining factors.
One of the most important is the enormous size and remoteness of many areas from
the sea, resulting in the dominance of the continental climate, which is prevalent
in European and Asian Russia except for the tundra and the extreme southeast.
Mountains in the south obstructing the flow of warm air masses from the Indian
Ocean and the plain of the west and north makes the country open to Arctic and
Atlantic influences. Throughout
much of the territory there are only two distinct seasons—winter and summer;
Spring and autumn are usually brief periods of change between extremely low temperatures
and extremely high. The coldest month is January (on the shores of the sea—February),
the warmest usually is July. Great ranges of temperature are typical. In winter
temperatures get colder both from south to north and from west to east. Summers
can be quite hot and humid, even in Siberia. A small part of Black Sea coast around
Sochi is considered in Russia to have subtropical climate. The continental interiors
are the driest areas. (Credit: Wikipedia). Profiles Yvonne
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