RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Russia, or officially the Russian Federation is a state situated in the eastern part of Europe and in the northern part of Asia. It is the largest state of the world in territory size. It has an area of more than 17 million square kilometers, or 1/9 of all Earth's land.
Population is about 141.9 million people (according to Rosstat as of August 1, 2009). 79.3% of inhabitants live in the European part of Russia. The majority of the population lives in cities — 73.1%. Russians make up 79.8% of the country's population. An official language is Russian.
There are 16 countries with land borders and two (USA and Japan) with sea borders.
After collapse of the Soviet Union at the turn of 1991 the Russian Federation was recognized by the international community as a state continuer of the USSR and took its place in the UN Security Council. It is a member of international organizations such as UN, CIS, OSCE, Council of Europe, EurAsEC, CSTO, SCO, APEC etc.
It became UNESCO member on April 21, 1954.
The Russian Federation is a presidential republic. Head of state is the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, Chairman of the Government is Vladimir Putin.
Russia possesses world’s largest reserves of mineral and energy resources, as well as woods and lakes containing about one fourth of world’s reserves of unfrozen fresh water.
Russia’s capital city is Moscow. 11 cities of the country number over 1 million people: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Omsk, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa. The currency is the Russian rouble.
Education, science, culture, communications in Russia — links:
- Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
- Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Education and Science (Rossobrnadzor)
- Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
- Federal Service for the Monitoring of Compliance With Legislation in the Area of the Protection of Cultural Heritage (Rosokhrankultura)
- Federal Archive Agency
- Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation
- Federal Agency for Print and Mass Media (Rospechat)





60 years with UNESCO



