57 Facts About Russia

Russia extends across eleven time zones and borders sixteen sovereign nations, more than any other country in the world.

Name Russia is derived from Rus', a medieval state populated primarily by the East Slavs However, the proper name became more prominent in later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants "Rus land".

Russia was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals, from about 45, 000 years ago, found in Mezmaiskaya cave.

Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of the Cossacks.

Under Peter the Great, Russia was proclaimed an empire in 1721, and established itself as one of the European great powers.

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Russia steeply escalated the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War by launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Russia is second only to Brazil by total renewable water resources.

The Volga in western Russia, widely regarded as Russia's national river, is the longest river in Europe; and forms the Volga Delta, the largest river delta in the continent.

Climate change in Russia is causing more frequent wildfires, and thawing the country's large expanse of permafrost.

Russia, owing to its gigantic size, has diverse ecosystems, including polar deserts, tundra, forest tundra, taiga, mixed and broadleaf forest, forest steppe, steppe, semi-desert, and subtropics.

About half of Russia's territory is forested, and it has the world's largest forest reserves, which sequester some of the world's highest amounts of carbon dioxide.

Russia still has many ecosystems which are still untouched by man; mainly in the northern taiga areas, and the subarctic tundra of Siberia.

Russia had a Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 9.

Russia, by constitution, is an asymmetric federal republic, with a semi-presidential system, wherein the president is the head of state, and the prime minister is the head of government.

Under the administrations of Vladimir Putin, Russia has experienced democratic backsliding, and has become an authoritarian state under a dictatorship, with Putin's policies being referred to as Putinism.

The federal districts of Russia were established by Putin in 2000 to facilitate central government control of the federal subjects.

Russia is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Russia is a member of the G20, the OSCE, and the APEC.

Russia takes a leading role in organisations such as the CIS, the EAEU, the CSTO, the SCO, and BRICS.

Russia maintains close relations with neighbouring Belarus, which is a part of the Union State, a supranational confederation of the two states.

Russia wields enormous influence across the geopolitically important South Caucasus and Central Asia; and the two regions have been described as Russia's "backyard".

Russia maintains cordial relations with Iran, as it is a strategic and economic ally.

Russia has increasingly pushed to expand its influence across the Arctic, Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Russia is among the five recognised nuclear-weapons states, with the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons; over half of the world's nuclear weapons are owned by Russia.

Russia possesses the second-largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines, and is one of the only three countries operating strategic bombers.

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Human rights in Russia have been increasingly criticised by leading democracy and human rights groups.

In particular, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say that Russia is not democratic and allows few political rights and civil liberties to its citizens.

In regards to media freedom, Russia was ranked 155th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index for 2022.

Russia has a long history of corruption, which is seen as a significant problem.

Russia has a mixed economy, with enormous natural resources, particularly oil and natural gas.

Russia is the world's thirteenth-largest exporter and the 21st-largest importer.

Russia has one of the lowest levels of external debt among major economies, although its inequality of household income and wealth is one of the highest among developed countries.

Russia is the world's leading natural gas exporter, the second-largest natural gas producer, and the second-largest oil producer and exporter.

Russia is committed to the Paris Agreement, after joining the pact formally in 2019.

Russia is the world's fourth-largest electricity producer, and the ninth-largest renewable energy producer in 2019.

Russia was the world's fourth-largest nuclear energy producer in 2019, and was the fifth-largest hydroelectric producer in 2021.

Russia is the world's largest exporter of wheat, the largest producer of barley and buckwheat, among the largest exporters of maize and sunflower oil, and the leading producer of fertilizer.

Russia ranked 45th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021.

Russia had 172 active satellites in space in April 2022, the world's third-highest.

Russia's most visited and popular landmarks include Red Square, the Peterhof Palace, the Kazan Kremlin, the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius and Lake Baikal.

Russia is one of the world's most sparsely populated and urbanised countries, with the vast majority of its population concentrated within its western part.

Russia is the most populous country in Europe, and the world's ninth most populous country, with a population density of 9 inhabitants per square kilometre.

In 2009, it recorded annual population growth for the first time in fifteen years; and since the 2010s, Russia has seen increased population growth due to declining death rates, increased birth rates and increased immigration.

However, since 2020, due to excessive deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's population has undergone its largest peacetime decline in history.

Russia is a multinational state with many subnational entities associated with different minorities.

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Islam is the second-largest religion in Russia, and is the traditional religion among the majority of the peoples of the North Caucasus, and among some Turkic peoples scattered along the Volga-Ural region.

Some religious minorities have faced oppression and some have been banned in the country; notably, in 2017 the Jehovah's Witnesses were outlawed in Russia, facing persecution ever since, after having been declared an "extremist" and "nontraditional" faith.

The Ministry of Education of Russia is responsible for primary and secondary education, as well as vocational education; while the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia is responsible for science and higher education.

Russia is among the world's most educated countries, and has the sixth-highest proportion of tertiary-level graduates in terms of percentage of population, at 62.

The oldest and largest universities in Russia are Moscow State University and Saint Petersburg State University.

Russia was the world's fifth-leading destination for international students in 2019, hosting roughly 300 thousand.

Russia is home to 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 19 out of which are cultural; while 27 more sites lie on the tentative list.

Until the 18th-century, music in Russia consisted mainly of church music and folk songs and dances.

State-run Channel One and Russia-1 are the leading news channels, while RT is the flagship of Russia's international media operations.

Russia has the largest video gaming market in Europe, with over 65 million players nationwide.

Russia was the host nation for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

However, Russia has had 43 Olympic medals stripped from its athletes due to doping violations, which is the most of any country, and nearly a third of the global total.