Russia (The Russian Federation) is a country that is mostly in Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It is the largest country in the world by land area. About 142.9 million people live in Russia according to the 2010 census. The official name for Russia in English is the Russian Federation. The capital city of Russia is Moscow. Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Belurus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has borders over water with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the United States by The Bering Strait.
Russia is a very large and diverse country. Its goverment is now based on a democratic form of rule. The president is chosen in direct elections and its current President is Vladimir Putin. The official language is Russian. Russia produces a lot of energy made from oil and natural gas.
At 17.075.400 km². land, Russia is the largest country in the world., covering more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area. Russia is also the world’s eight most populous nation with 143 million people as of 2012.
Extending from eastern Europe across the whole of northern Asia, Russia spans nine time zones and has a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world’s largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. Russia has the largest world’s forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world’s fresh water.
