Geography |
Russia is the largest country in the world, stretching
right around one half of the world starting in
eastern Europe and crossing northern Asia until
it ever so nearly (90km) reaches Alaska.
Its gigantic 170.754.00 km2 territory is surrounded
by seas from three oceans: the Artic Ocean seas
- the Barents, White, Karsk, Laptev, Eastern Siberian
and Tchukotka seas - the Pacific Ocean seas -
the Bering, 0khotsk and Japanese seas - and the
Atlantic ocean seas - the Baltic, Black, and Azov
seas.
It has land borders with no fewer than fourteen
countries: Norway, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Belarus, the Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and the Korean Democratic
Republic.
Russia's five longest rivers are all longer than
3,500km: the Lena (4400km), the Irtysh (4248km),
the Yenisei (3487km), the Ob' (3650km) and the
Volga (3542km).
Its largest lakes are lake Baikal (31,500 km2)
and lake Ladoga (17,700 km2).
The highest mountain, Mount Elbrus (5642m), is
located in the northern Caucasus region and is
where Noah's dove of peace is said to have landed
bearing an olive branch.
The Russian Federation spans eleven time zones,
from GMT+2 to GMT+12, both inclusive.
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Russia is the sixth
most populous country in the world with a total
resident population of 143.954.500 people (January
2002 figures) and a population density of 8.4 inhabitants/km2.
| |
2001 |
2002 |
| Total population (million inhabitants) |
144.8 |
144.0 |
| Urban |
105.6 |
105.0 |
| Rural |
39.2 |
39.0 |
Its five largest cities are Moscow (8,305,000
people), St Petersburg (4,628,000 people), Novosibirsk
(1,393,000 people), Nizhny Novgorod (1,343,000
people) and Yekaterinburg (1,257,000 people).
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Climate |
In January, the average temperature in the northern
Caucasus is between 0 and - 5ºC.
In the east of the Republic of Sakha, it is between
- 40 and - 50ºC and here is where you will
find the coldest inhabited place on the planet
- in January 1926, a temperature lower than -72ºC
was recorded.
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