About Russia

Russia (Russian: Россия, Rossiya), also the Russian Federation (Rossiyskaya Federatsiya), is a transcontinental country extending over much of northern Eurasia (Europe and Asia). With an area of 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering almost twice the total area of the next-largest country, Canada. It is also home to the world’s ninth-largest population of an estimated 142 million people.

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 U.S. state of Alaska, Sweden and Japan across relatively small stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, and La Perouse Strait, respectively). Russia possesses the world’s largest mineral and energy resources and is considered an energy superpower.

Russia established worldwide power and influence from the times of the Russian Empire to being the largest constituent of the Soviet Union, the world’s first and largest Communist state, both of whom stretched their domains across most of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The Russian Federation was founded following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, but is recognized as the continuing legal personality of the Soviet Union. Russia is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the G8 and other global organizations. Russia is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the world’s largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.