Russia

• ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia;
• subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north;
• winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia;
• summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast

• broad plain with low hills west of Urals;
• vast coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia;
• uplands and mountains along southern border regions

• permafrost over much of Siberia is a major impediment to development;
• volcanic activity in the Kuril Islands;
• volcanoes and earthquakes on the Kamchatka Peninsula

• air pollution from heavy industry, emissions of coal-fired electric plants, and transportation in major cities;
• industrial and agricultural pollution of inland waterways and sea coasts;
• deforestation;
• soil erosion;
• soil contamination from improper application of agricultural chemicals;
• scattered areas of sometimes intense radioactive contamination

party to:

Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified:

Air Pollution-Sulphur 94

• largest country in the world in terms of area but unfavorably located in relation to major sea lanes of the world;
• despite its size, much of the country lacks proper soils and climates (either too cold or too dry) for agriculture

0-14 years:

20% (male 14,756,787; female 14,189,564)

15-64 years:

68% (male 48,138,173; female 51,366,412)

65 years and over:

12% (male 5,699,334; female 12,710,752) (July 1998 est.)

at birth:

1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.03 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

0.93 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.44 male(s)/female (1998 est.)

noun:

Russian(s)

adjective:

Russian

conventional long form:

Russian Federation

conventional short form:

Russia

local long form:

Rossiyskaya Federatsiya

local short form:

Rossiya

former:

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

• Constitutional Court, judges are appointed for life by the Federation Council on recommendation of the president;
• Supreme Court, judges are appointed for life by the Federation Council on recommendation of the president;
• Superior Court of Arbitration, judges are appointed for life by the Federation Council on recommendation of the president

pro-market democrats:

• Yabloko Bloc [Grigoriy Alekseyevich YAVLINSKIY];
• Russia's Democratic Choice Party [Yegor Timurovich GAYDAR];
• Forward, Russia! [Boris Grigor'yevich FEDOROV]

centrists/special interest parties:

• Our Home Is Russia [Viktor Stepanovich CHERNOMYRDIN];
• Russian People's Republican Party [Aleksandr Ivanovich LEBED];
• Congress of Russian Communities [Dmitriy Olegovich ROGOZIN];
• Women of Russia [Alevtina Vasil'yevna FEDULOVA and Yekaterina Filippovna LAKHOVA]

anti-market and/or ultranationalist:

• Communist Party of the Russian Federation [Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV];
• Liberal Democratic Party of Russia [Vladimir Vol'fovich ZHIRINOVSKIY];
• Agrarian Party [Mikhail Ivanovich LAPSHIN];
• Power To the People [Nikolay Ivanovich RYZHKOV and Sergey Nikolayevich BABURIN];
• Russian Communist Workers' Party [Viktor Ivanovich ANPILOV and Viktor Arkad'yevich TYUL'KIN]

note: some 269 political parties, blocs, and associations tried to gather enough signatures to run slates of candidates in the 17 December 1995 Duma elections; 43 succeeded

chief of mission:

Ambassador Yuliy Mikhaylovich VORONTSOV

chancery:

2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007

telephone:

[1] (202) 298-5700 through 5704

chief of mission:

Ambassador James F. COLLINS

embassy:

Novinskiy Bul'var 19/23, Moscow

mailing address:

APO AE 09721

telephone:

[7] (095) 252-24-51 through 59

total:

66 million (1997)

by occupation:

NA

• complete range of mining and extractive industries producing coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and metals;
• all forms of machine building from rolling mills to high-performance aircraft and space vehicles;
• shipbuilding;
• road and rail transportation equipment;
• communications equipment;
• agricultural machinery, tractors, and construction equipment;
• electric power generating and transmitting equipment;
• medical and scientific instruments;
• consumer durables, textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts

total value:

$86.7 billion (1997)

commodities:

petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures

partners:

Europe, North America, Japan, Third World countries

total value:

$66.9 billion (1997)

commodities:

machinery and equipment, consumer goods, medicines, meat, grain, sugar, semifinished metal products

partners:

Europe, North America, Japan, Third World countries

• total pay phones for long distant calls 34,100;
• enlisting foreign help, by means of joint ventures, to speed up the modernization of its telecommunications system;
• in 1992, only 661,000 new telephones were installed compared with 855,000 in 1991, and in 1992 the number of unsatisfied applications for telephones reached 11,000,000;
• expanded access to international electronic mail service available via Sprint network;
• the inadequacy of Russian telecommunications is a severe handicap to the economy, especially with respect to international connections

domestic:

NMT-450 analog cellular telephone networks are operational and growing in Moscow and St. Petersburg; intercity fiber-optic cable installation remains limited

international:

• international traffic is inadequately handled by a system of satellites, landlines, microwave radio relay, and outdated submarine cables;
• much of this traffic passes through the international gateway switch in Moscow which carries most of the international traffic for the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States;
• a new Russian Intersputnik satellite will link Moscow and St. Petersburg with Rome from whence calls will be relayed to destinations in Europe and overseas;
• satellite earth stations-NA Intelsat, 4 Intersputnik (2 Atlantic Ocean region and 2 Indian Ocean region), NA Eutelsat, 1 Inmarsat (Pacific Ocean region), and NA Orbita

total:

• 154,000 km;
• note-87,000 km in common carrier service (38,000 km electrified);
• 67,000 km serve specific industries and are not available for common carrier use

broad gauge:

154,000 km 1.520-m gauge (1 January 1994)

total:

948,000 km (including 416,000 km which serve specific industries or farms and are not maintained by governmental highway maintenance departments)

paved:

336,000 km

unpaved:

612,000 km (including 411,000 km of graveled or other forms of macadam surface and 201,000 km of unstabilized earth) (1995 est.)

• total navigable routes in general use 101,000 km;
• routes with navigation guides serving the Russian River Fleet 95,900 km;
• routes with night navigational aids 60,400 km;
• man-made navigable routes 16,900 km (1 January 1994)

• crude oil 48,000 km;
• petroleum products 15,000 km;
• natural gas 140,000 km (30 June 1993)

• two disputed sections of the boundary with China remain to be settled;
• islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, and Shikotan and the Habomai group occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia, claimed by Japan;
• Caspian Sea boundaries are not yet determined among Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan;
• Estonian and Russian negotiators reached a technical border agreement in December 1996 which has not been ratified;
• Estonia claimed over 2,000 sq km of territory in the Narva and Pechora regions of Russia - based on boundary established under the 1920 Peace Treaty of Tartu;
• based on the 1920 Treaty of Riga, Latvia had claimed the Abrene/Pytalovo section of border ceded by the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic to Russia in 1944;
• draft treaty delimiting the boundary with Latvia has not been signed;
• has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other nation;
• 1997 border agreement with Lithuania not yet ratified;
• Svalbard is the focus of a maritime boundary dispute in the Barents Sea between Norway and Russia

• limited cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for domestic consumption;
• government has active eradication program;
• increasingly used as transshipment point for Southwest and Southeast Asian opiates and cannabis and Latin American cocaine to Western Europe, the US, and growing domestic market RWANDA