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;
• spring floods and summer/autumn forest fires throughout Siberia and parts of European Russia

• air pollution from heavy industry, emissions of coal-fired electric plants, and transportation in major cities;
• industrial, municipal, and agricultural pollution of inland waterways and seacoasts;
• deforestation;
• soil erosion;
• soil contamination from improper application of agricultural chemicals;
• scattered areas of sometimes intense radioactive contamination;
• groundwater contamination from toxic waste;
• urban solid waste management;
• abandoned stocks of obsolete pesticides

• 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;
• Mount El'brus is Europe's tallest peak

0-14 years:

15% (male 11,064,109; female 10,518,595)

15-64 years:

71.3% (male 49,534,076; female 52,958,107)

65 years and over:

13.7% (male 6,177,580; female 13,529,871) (2004 est.)

at birth:

1.06 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.05 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

0.94 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.46 male(s)/female

total population:

0.87 male(s)/female (2004 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 Empire, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

chief of state:

President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN (acting president since 31 December 1999, president since 7 May 2000)

head of government:

Premier Mikhail Yefimovich FRADKOV (since 5 March 2004); Deputy Premier Aleksandr Dmitriyevich ZHUKOV (since 9 March 2004)

cabinet:

Ministries of the Government or "Government" composed of the premier and his deputy, ministers, and selected other individuals; all are appointed by the president

note: there is also a Presidential Administration (PA) that provides staff and policy support to the president, drafts presidential decrees, and coordinates policy among government agencies; a Security Council also reports directly to the president

elections:

• president elected by popular vote for a four-year term;
• election last held 14 March 2004 (next to be held NA March 2008);
• note - no vice president;
• if the president dies in office, cannot exercise his powers because of ill health, is impeached, or resigns, the premier succeeds him;
• the premier serves as acting president until a new presidential election is held, which must be within three months;
• premier appointed by the president with the approval of the Duma

election results:

• Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN reelected president;
• percent of vote - Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN 71.2%, Nikolay KHARITONOV 13.7%, other (no candidate above 5%) 15.1%

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

• Communist Party of the Russian Federation or CPRF [Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV];
• Liberal Democratic Party of Russia or LDPR [Vladimir Volfovich ZHIRINOVSKIY];
• Motherland Bloc (Rodina) [Dmitriy ROGOZIN];
• People's Party [Gennadiy RAYKOV];
• Union of Rightist Forces or SPS [Anatoliy Borisovich CHUBAYS, Yegor Timurovich GAYDAR, Irina Mutsuovna KHAKAMADA, Boris Yefimovich NEMTSOV];
• United Russia [Boris Vyacheslavovich GRYZLOV];
• Yabloko Party [Grigoriy Alekseyevich YAVLINSKIY]

APEC, ARF, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIS, BSEC, CBSS, CE, CERN (observer), CIS, EAPC, EBRD, G- 8, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM (guest), NSG, OAS (observer), ONUB, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UN Security Council, UNAMSIL, UNCTAD, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIK, UNMIL, UNMISET, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO (observer), ZC

chief of mission:

Ambassador Yuriy Viktorovich USHAKOV

chancery:

2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007

telephone:

[1] (202) 298-5700, 5701, 5704, 5708

FAX:

[1] (202) 298-5735

consulate(s) general:

New York, San Francisco, and Seattle

chief of mission:

Ambassador Alexander VERSHBOW

embassy:

Bolshoy Devyatinskiy Pereulok No. 8, 121099 Moscow

mailing address:

PSC-77, APO AE 09721

telephone:

[7] (095) 728-5000

FAX:

[7] (095) 728-5090

consulate(s) general:

Saint Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg

lowest 10%:

5.9%

highest 10%:

47% (2001)

• 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

general assessment:

• the telephone system underwent significant changes in the 1990s;
• there are more than 1,000 companies licensed to offer communication services;
• access to digital lines has improved, particularly in urban centers;
• Internet and e-mail services are improving;
• Russia has made progress toward building the telecommunications infrastructure necessary for a market economy;
• however, a large demand for main line service remains unsatisfied

domestic:

• cross-country digital trunk lines run from Saint Petersburg to Khabarovsk, and from Moscow to Novorossiysk;
• the telephone systems in 60 regional capitals have modern digital infrastructures;
• cellular services, both analog and digital, are available in many areas;
• in rural areas, the telephone services are still outdated, inadequate, and low density

international:

• country code - 7;
• Russia is connected internationally by three undersea fiber-optic cables;
• digital switches in several cities provide more than 50,000 lines for international calls;
• satellite earth stations provide access to Intelsat, Intersputnik, Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and Orbita systems

total:

87,157 km

broad gauge:

86,200 km 1.520-m gauge (40,300 km electrified)

narrow gauge:

957 km 1.067-m gauge (on Sakhalin Island)

note: an additional 30,000 km of non-common carrier lines serve industries (2003)

total:

532,393 km

paved:

358,833 km

unpaved:

173,560 km (2000)

• condensate 122 km;
• gas 150,007 km;
• oil 75,539 km;
• refined products 13,771 km (2004)

• 18-27 years of age;
• males are registered for the draft at 17 years of age;
• 200,000 conscripts were inducted into the armed forces in 2003;
• length of compulsory military service is 2 years;
• plans as of August 2004 call for reduction in mandatory service to 1 year by 2008;
• 2003 planning calls for volunteer servicemen to compose 70% of armed forces by 2010, with the remaining servicemen consisting of conscripts (August 2004)

• China and Russia in 2004 resolved their last border dispute over islands in the Amur and Argun Rivers, but details on demarcation have not yet been worked-out;
• the sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai group known in Japan as the "Northern Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kurils," occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia, and claimed by Japan, remains the primary sticking point to signing a peace treaty formally ending World War II hostilities;
• about a third of the boundary with Georgia remains undelimited and none of it demarcated with several small, strategic segments remaining in dispute;
• OSCE observers monitor volatile areas such as the Pankisi Gorge in the Akhmeti region and the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia;
• equidistant seabed treaties have been signed with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in the Caspian Sea but no consensus on dividing the water column among the littoral states;
• Russia and Norway dispute their maritime limits in the Barents Sea and Russia's fishing rights beyond Svalbard's territorial limits within the Svalbard Treaty zone;
• Russia continues to reject signing and ratifying the joint 1996 technical border agreement with Estonia;
• the Russian Parliament refuses to consider ratification of the boundary treaties with Estonia and Latvia, but in May 2003, ratified land and maritime boundary treaty with Lithuania, which ratified the 1997 treaty in 1999, legalizing limits of former Soviet republic borders;
• a simplified transit regime was adopted in July 2003 for residents of the Kaliningrad coastal exclave to travel through Lithuania to Russia;
• delimitation of land boundary with Ukraine is complete, but demarcation remains unresolved;
• Ukraine protests Russia's construction of a causeway in the direction of Ukrainian-administered Tuzla Island in the Kerch Strait;
• Kazakhstan and Russia will complete delimitation of their interstate border in 2004 and demarcation is underway;
• Russian Duma has not yet ratified 1990 Maritime Boundary Agreement with the US in the Bering Sea

• limited cultivation of illicit cannabis and opium poppy and producer of methamphetamine, mostly for domestic consumption;
• government has active illicit crop eradication program;
• used as transshipment point for Asian opiates, cannabis, and Latin American cocaine bound for growing domestic markets, to a lesser extent Western and Central Europe, and occasionally to the US;
• major source of heroin precursor chemicals;
• corruption and organized crime are key concerns;
• heroin increasingly popular in domestic market