Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Russia Almanac
Official Name:
Russian Federation (Российская Федерация), or just Russia.
Population:
Russia is a vast, multiethnic country of more than 140 million people, in-
cluding a wide range of ethnic-Asian minority groups (one in five Russians is not
ethnically Russian).
LatitudeandLongitude:
St. Petersburg sits at about 60°N and 30°E. It's nearly as far
north as Canada's Northwest Territories and Yukon, and farther east than Istanbul.
Area:
6.6 million square miles, nearly double the size of the US.
Geography:
The world's biggest country by area, Russia stretches from Europe all the
way across Asia to Alaska. The European continent contains only about a quarter
of Russia's land, but three-quarters of its population.
Biggest City:
Moscow, Russia's capital, is home to 11.5 million people—making St.
Petersburg, the second city, seem small with “just” 4.8 million.
Economy:
Russia's Gross Domestic Product of $2.5 trillion makes it the world's
seventh-biggest economy—though its per capita GDP ($17,700) ranks around
70th.
Currency:
33 Russian rubles (R, officially RUB) = about $1. (To roughly convert
Russian prices, divide by three and drop a zero.)
Government:
As a federation, Russia has 46 provinces (like the 50 US
states)—which include oblasts, republics, and federal cities. The country is firmly
led by President Vladimir Putin and his handpicked associate, Prime Minister
Dimitry Medvedev.
Language:
The native language is Russian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet. For de-
Flag:
Russia's “Tricolor” flag consists of equal horizontal stripes (top to bottom):
white, blue, and red.
The Average Russian:
Lives only to age 59 and consumes four gallons of alcohol a
year, much of it vodka.
Today's Russia is wrestling with an ostensibly free-market economy that's dominated by
the monopolistic instincts of the communist past, troubling concerns about ethnic diversity,
and an increasingly stratified society (with a tiny and extremely wealthy upper class, a huge
and desperate lower class, and little room in the middle). Bribery is an integral part of the
economy—estimated at 20 percent of GDP. A corporate survey found it's harder to do busi-
ness in Russia than in Bangladesh, Yemen, or Pakistan.
You'll see many “Asian” (most are actually Siberian) Russians, a reminder that this
vast nation stretches from Norway to China. The friction between ethnic Russians and
their eastern countrymen—which erupts violently in the form of periodic hate
crimes—demonstrates that that gap between rich and poor has left a growing number of
Russians desperate for scapegoats.
