Russia

Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area - 17 075 000 square kilometers, 1030 towns and cities, 2153 urban villages. According to the Census of 2010 the population of Russia is 143 million people making it the ninth most populous nation.

Russia is situated in the eastern part of Europe and the nothern part of Asia. Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the United States by the Bering Strait.

The capital is Moscow with the population of more than 11 million people (1 January 2011).

Other largest cities are Saint Petersburg (4.669.400), Novosibirsk (1.425.600), Nizhny Novgorod (1.311.200), Ekaterinburg (1.293.000), Samara (1.158.100), Omsk (1.133.900), Kazan  (1.105.300)  and others.

The official language is Russian but there are many other languages of more than 100 nations, living in the territory of the RF.

According to the Constitution of Russia, the country is a federation and semi-presidential republic, wherein the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. The Russian Federation is fundamentally structured as a multi-party representative democracy, with the federal government composed of three branches: legislative, executive and judiciary.

Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism are Russia's traditional religions.Orthodox Christianity is Russia's traditional and largest religion, deemed a part of Russia's "historical heritage" in a law passed in 1997. Russian Orthodoxy is the dominant religion in Russia. 95% of the registered Orthodox parishes belong to the Russian Orthodox Church while there are a number of smaller Orthodox Churches. Estimates of the number of Muslims in Russia range from 7-9 million by the local sources to 15-20 million by Western and Islamic sources.Buddhism is traditional for three regions of the Russian Federation: Buryatia, Tuva, and Kalmykia.

Russia is the country with the impetuous centuries-old history and rich culture. Some architectual and historical and cultural monuments in the territory of Russia are entered in a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites including the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square, historic center of Saint Petersburg and complexes of palaces and gardens of its outskirts, historic monuments of Novgorod, historic and cultural complex of the Solovetsky Islands, white-stone monuments of old Vladimir-Suzdal land and towns of the Golden Ring of Russia, church Boris and GLeb in Kideksh, the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius in Sergiyev Posad, Church of Ascension in Kolomenskoe etc.

Natural monuments of the country, due to its extensive territory and a great number of natural complexes, are various: Lakes Onega and Ladoga, the dippest in the world Lake Baikal, relict Siberian taiga, beautiful mountain chains of the Caucasus and Altai, volcanoes and geysers of Kamchatka, protected Meshchersk forests, amazing lake district of Karelia, Sayany, Volga and Ahtuba, old Ural mountains, powerful Siberian rivers, severe Russian North and others. Plenty of rivers, lakes, mountain chains and rich natture make the country a wonderful place for active kinds of rest.

Historic places - Moscow, Novgorod, Borodino, Rostov the Great, Smolensk, Pskov, Tula, Ryazan, Orel, Volgograd, various cities of Siberia - in each of them one can find something to look at.

State arms and flaf of the Russian Federation were approved in 1993 by the decree of President B. Eltsin.

The National Anthem of the Russian Federation is the name of the official national anthem of Russia. Its musical composition and lyrics were adopted from the anthem of the Soviet Union, composed by Alexander Alexandrov, and lyricists Sergey Mikhalkov and Gabriel El-Registan.

Official lyrics:

Transliteration:

Rossiya - svyashchennaya nasha derzhava,

Rossiya - lyubimaya nasha strana.

Moguchaya volya, velikaya slava -

Tvoyo dostoyanye na vse vremena!

    Slav'sya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye,

    Bratskikh narodov soyuz vekovoy,

    Predkami dannaya mudrost' narodnaya!

    Slav'sya, strana! My gordimsya toboy!

Ot yuzhnykh morey do polyarnogo kraya

Raskinulis' nashi lesa i polya.

Odna ty na svete! Odna ty takaya -

Khranimaya Bogom rodnaya zemlya!

Shirokiy prostor dlya mechty i dlya zhizni.

Gryadushchiye nam otkryvayut goda.

Nam silu dayot nasha vernost' Otchizne.

Tak bylo, tak yest' i tak budet vsegda!

English Translation:

Russia - our holy nation,

Russia - our beloved country.

A mighty will, great glory -

These are yours for all time!

    Be glorious, our free Fatherland,

    Age-old union of fraternal peoples,

    National wisdom given by our forebears!

    Be glorious, our country! We are proud of you!

From the southern seas to the polar lands

Spread our forests and fields.

You are unique in the world, one of a kind -

Native land protected by God!

Wide spaces for dreams and for living

Are opened for us by the coming years

Our loyalty to our Fatherland gives us strength.

Thus it was, thus it is and always will be!