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| Introduction | Russia |
| Background: | Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household. The Communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR. The brutal rule of Josef STALIN (1928-53) strengthened Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the following decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into 15 independent republics. Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy to replace the strict social, political, and economic controls of the Communist period. While some progress has been made on the economic front, recent years have seen a recentralization of power under Vladimir PUTIN and an erosion in nascent democratic institutions. A determined guerrilla conflict still plagues Russia in Chechnya. |
| People | Russia |
| Population: | 143,782,338 (July 2004 est.) |
| Age structure: | 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.) |
| Median age: | total: 37.9 years male: 34.7 years female: 40.7 years (2004 est.) |
| Population growth rate: | -0.45% (2004 est.) |
| Birth rate: | 9.63 births/1,000 population (2004 est.) |
| Death rate: | 15.17 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.) |
| Net migration rate: | 1.02 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.) |
| Sex ratio: | 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.) |
| Infant mortality rate: | total: 16.96 deaths/1,000 live births female: 14.18 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.) male: 19.58 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Life expectancy at birth: | total population: 66.39 years male: 59.91 years female: 73.27 years (2004 est.) |
| Total fertility rate: | 1.26 children born/woman (2004 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: | 0.9% (2001 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: | 700,000 (2001 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - deaths: | 9,000 (2001 est.) |
| Nationality: | noun: Russian(s) adjective: Russian |
| Ethnic groups: | Russian 81.5%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 3%, Chuvash 1.2%, Bashkir 0.9%, Belarusian 0.8%, Moldavian 0.7%, other 8.1% (1989) |
| Religions: | Russian Orthodox, Muslim, other |
| Languages: | Russian, other |
| Literacy: | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99.6% male: 99.7% female: 99.5% (2003 est.) |
| Government | Russia |
| Country name: | conventional long form: Russian Federation conventional short form: Russia local short form: Rossiya local long form: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya former: Russian Empire, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic |
| Government type: | federation |
| Capital: | Moscow |
| Administrative divisions: | 49 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast), 21 republics (respublik, singular - respublika), 10 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnykh okrugov, singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 6 krays (krayev, singular - kray), 2 federal cities (singular - gorod), and 1 autonomous oblast(avtonomnaya oblast') : oblasts: Amurskaya (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'skaya, Astrakhanskaya, Belgorodskaya, Bryanskaya, Chelyabinskaya, Chitinskaya, Irkutskaya, Ivanovskaya, Kaliningradskaya, Kaluzhskaya, Kamchatskaya (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Kemerovskaya, Kirovskaya, Kostromskaya, Kurganskaya, Kurskaya, Leningradskaya, Lipetskaya, Magadanskaya, Moskovskaya, Murmanskaya, Nizhegorodskaya, Novgorodskaya, Novosibirskaya, Omskaya, Orenburgskaya, Orlovskaya (Orel), Penzenskaya, Permskaya, Pskovskaya, Rostovskaya, Ryazanskaya, Sakhalinskaya (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samarskaya, Saratovskaya, Smolenskaya, Sverdlovskaya (Yekaterinburg), Tambovskaya, Tomskaya, Tul'skaya, Tverskaya, Tyumenskaya, Ul'yanovskaya, Vladimirskaya, Volgogradskaya, Vologodskaya, Voronezhskaya, Yaroslavskaya : republics: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan (Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Nazran'), Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk), Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordoviya (Saransk), Sakha (Yakutiya), Severnaya Osetiya-Alaniya [North Ossetia] (Vladikavkaz), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk) : federal cities: Moskva (Moscow), Sankt-Peterburg (Saint Petersburg) : autonomous oblast: Yevreyskaya; note - when using a place name with an adjectival ending 'skaya' or 'skiy,' the word Oblast' or Avonomnyy Okrug or Kray should be added to the place name : krays: Altayskiy (Barnaul), Khabarovskiy, Krasnodarskiy, Krasnoyarskiy, Primorskiy (Vladivostok), Stavropol'skiy : autonomous okrugs: Aginskiy Buryatskiy (Aginskoye), Chukotskiy (Anadyr'), Evenkiyskiy (Tura), Khanty-Mansiyskiy (Khanty-Mansiysk), Koryakskiy (Palana), Nenetskiy (Nar'yan-Mar), Komi-Permyatskiy (Kudymkar), Taymyrskiy (Dudinka), Ust'-Ordynskiy Buryatskiy (Ust'-Ordynskiy), Yamalo-Nenetskiy (Salekhard) note: administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses) |
| Independence: | 24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union) |
| National holiday: | Russia Day, 12 June (1990) |
| Constitution: | adopted 12 December 1993 |
| Legal system: | based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts |
| Suffrage: | 18 years of age; universal |
| Executive branch: | chief of state: President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN (acting president since 31 December 1999, president since 7 May 2000) 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 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 head of government: Premier Mikhail Yefimovich FRADKOV (since 5 March 2004); Deputy Premier Aleksandr Dmitriyevich ZHUKOV (since 9 March 2004) 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% |
| Legislative branch: | bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye consists of the Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (178 seats; as of July 2000, members appointed by the top executive and legislative officials in each of the 89 federal administrative units - oblasts, krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the federal cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg; members serve four-year terms) and the State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats; 225 seats elected by proportional representation from party lists winning at least 5% of the vote, and 225 seats from single-member constituencies; members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve four-year terms) elections: State Duma - last held 7 December 2003 (next to be held NA December 2007) election results: State Duma - percent of vote received by parties clearing the 5% threshold entitling them to a proportional share of the 225 party list seats - United Russia 37.1%, CPRF 12.7%, LDPR 11.6%, Motherland 9.1%; seats by party - United Russia 222, CPRF 53, LDPR 38, Motherland 37, People's Party 19, Yabloko 4, Union of Rightist Forces 2, other 7, independents 65, repeat election required 3 |
| Judicial branch: | 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 |
| Political parties and leaders: | Communist Party of the Russian Federation or CPRF [Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV]; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia or LDPR [Vladimir Volfovich ZHIRINOVSKIY]; Motherland Bloc (Rodina) [Sergey GLAZYEV and 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] |
| Political pressure groups and leaders: | NA |
| International organization participation: | 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), MINURSO, MONUC, NAM (guest), NSG, OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UN Security Council, UNAMSIL, UNCTAD, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIK, UNMISET, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO (observer), ZC |
| Diplomatic representation in the US: | chief of mission: Ambassador Yuriy Viktorovich USHAKOV consulate(s) general: New York, San Francisco, and Seattle FAX: [1] (202) 298-5735 telephone: [1] (202) 298-5700, 5701, 5704, 5708 chancery: 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007 |
| Diplomatic representation from the US: | 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 |
| Flag description: | three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red |
| Communications | Russia |
| Telephones - main lines in use: | 35.5 million (2002) |
| Telephones - mobile cellular: | 17,608,800 (2002) |
| Telephone system: | 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 |
| Radio broadcast stations: | AM 420, FM 447, shortwave 56 (1998) |
| Radios: | 61.5 million (1997) |
| Television broadcast stations: | 7,306 (1998) |
| Televisions: | 60.5 million (1997) |
| Internet country code: | .ru; Russia also has responsibility for a legacy domain ".su" that was allocated to the Soviet Union, and whose legal status and ownership are contested by the Russian Government, ICANN, and several Russian commercial entities |
| Internet hosts: | 560,874 (2004) |
| Internet Service Providers (ISPs): | 300 (June 2000) |
| Internet users: | 6 million (2002) |
| Transportation | Russia |
| Railways: | total: 87,157 km broad gauge: 86,200 km 1.520-m gauge (40,300 km electrified) note: an additional 30,000 km of non-common carrier lines serve industries (2003) narrow gauge: 957 km 1.067-m gauge (on Sakhalin Island) |
| Highways: | total: 532,393 km paved: 358,833 km unpaved: 173,560 km (2000) |
| Waterways: | 96,000 km note: 72,000 km system in European Russia links Baltic Sea, White Sea, Caspian Sea, Sea of Azov, and Black Sea (2004) |
| Pipelines: | condensate 122 km; gas 150,007 km; oil 75,539 km; refined products 13,771 km (2004) |
| Ports and harbors: | Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskiy, Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', De-Kastri, Indigirskiy, Kaliningrad, Kandalaksha, Kazan', Khabarovsk, Kholmsk, Krasnoyarsk, Lazarev, Mago, Mezen', Moscow, Murmansk, Nakhodka, Nevel'sk, Novorossiysk, Onega, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Rostov, Shakhtersk, Saint Petersburg, Sochi, Taganrog, Tuapse, Uglegorsk, Vanino, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Vostochnyy, Vyborg |
| Merchant marine: | total: 958 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 4,521,472 GRT/5,505,118 DWT by type: barge carrier 1, bulk 20, cargo 562, chemical tanker 13, combination bulk 21, combination ore/oil 36, container 28, multi-functional large load carrier 2, passenger 35, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 179, rail car carrier 1, refrigerated cargo 27, roll on/roll off 21, short-sea/passenger 6, specialized tanker 2 foreign-owned: Belize 2, Cambodia 2, Cyprus 9, Denmark 1, Estonia 3, Germany 1, Greece 3, Hong Kong 1, South Korea 1, Latvia 2, Lithuania 3, Malta 2, Moldova 3, Netherlands 2, Panama 2, Switzerland 4, Turkey 18, Turkmenistan 2, Ukraine 7, United Kingdom 3, United States 4 registered in other countries: 350 (2003 est.) |
| Airports: | 2,609 (2003 est.) |
| Airports - with paved runways: | total: 585 over 3,047 m: 56 2,438 to 3,047 m: 201 914 to 1,523 m: 100 under 914 m: 106 (2003 est.) 1,524 to 2,437 m: 122 |
| Airports - with unpaved runways: | total: 2,024 under 914 m: 1,590 (2003 est.) over 3,047 m: 19 2,438 to 3,047 m: 34 914 to 1,523 m: 261 1,524 to 2,437 m: 120 |
| Heliports: | 36 (2003 est.) |
| Military | Russia |
| Military branches: | Ground Forces, Navy, Air Forces; Airborne troops, Strategic Rocket Forces, and Military Space Forces are classified as independent combat arms, not subordinate to any of the three branches : |
| Military manpower - military age and obligation: | 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) |
| Military manpower - availability: | males age 15-49: 39,127,169 (2004 est.) |
| Military manpower - fit for military service: | males age 15-49: 30,600,088 (2004 est.) |
| Military manpower - reaching military age annually: | males: 1,262,339 (2004 est.) |
| Military expenditures - dollar figure: | NA |
| Military expenditures - percent of GDP: | NA |
| Transnational Issues | Russia |
| Disputes - international: | China continues to seek a mutually acceptable solution to the disputed alluvial islands at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers and a small island on the Argun River as part of the 2001 Treaty of Good Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation; 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 Argun 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 boundary through the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait remains unresolved despite a December 2003 framework agreement and on-going expert-level discussions; 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 |
| Refugees and internally displaced persons: | IDPs: 368,000 (displacement from Chechnya and North Ossetia) (2004) |
| Illicit drugs: | 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 |
| This page was last updated on 16 December, 2004 |
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