Location: Northern Asia (that part west of the Urals is included with Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean, between Europe and the North Pacific Ocean. Area: total: 17,075,200 sq km land: 16,995,800 sq km water: 79,400 sq km Climate: Ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast Terrain: braod plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous forest and trunda in Siberia; uplands and mountains along southern border regionals Capital: Moscow Administrative divisions: 49 oblasts (oblastey), 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: Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Perm', Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno- Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl' : republics: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan (Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas),Kabardino-Balkariya(Nal'chik), Kalmykiya(Elista), Karachayevo- Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk), Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordoviya (Saransk), Sakha [Yakutiya] (Yakutsk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk) : autonomous okrugs: Aga Buryat (Aginskoye), Chukotka (Anadyr'), Evenk (Tura), Khanty-Mansi, Komi-Permyak (Kudymkar), Koryak (Palana), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Taymyr [Dolgano-Nenets] (Dudinka), Ust'-Orda Buryat (Ust'- Ordynskiy), Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard) : krays: Altay (Barnaul), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Primorskiy (Vladivostok), Stavropol' : federal cities: Moscow (Moskva), Saint Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg) : autonomous oblast: Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan) Population: 143,420,309 (2005 est.) Ethnic groups: Russian 79.8%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 2%, Bashkir 1.2%, Chuvash 1.1%, other 12.1% (2002 census) Nationality: noun: Russian(s) adjective: Russian Languages: Russian, many minority languages Religions: Russian Orthodox, Muslim, other Literacy: 99.6%

Government type: federation Executive branch: • chief of state: President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN (acting president since December 1999, president since May 2000) • head of government: Premier Mikhail Yefimovich FRADKOV (since March 2004); Deputy Premier Aleksandr Dmitriyevich ZHUKOV (since March 2004) • cabinet: Ministries of the Government composed of the premier and his deputy, ministers, and selected other individuals; all are appointed by the president • elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term National Holiday: Russia Day, 12 June (1990) ACD Member: ACD Meber since 2005 Prime Mover (PM) on Working Group: Natural Disasters Co-Prime Mover on Working Group: None Russia government official web site : www.gov.ru

Currency (code): Russian ruble (RUR) GDP: $1.535 trillion (2005 est.) GDP per capita: $10,700 (2005 est.) Exports - commodities: Petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures Exports - partners: Netherlands , Germany , Ukraine , Italy , China , US , Switzerland , Turkey Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, consumer goods, medicines, meat, sugar, semifinished metal products Imports - partners: Germany , Ukraine , China , Japan , Kazakhstan , US , Italy , France Ariculture - products: grain, sugar beets, sunflowers seed, vegetables, fruits; beef, milk Industries: complete range of mining and extractive industries producing coal, oil, gas chemicals, and methals; all forms of machine building from rolling mills to high performance aircraft and space vehicles; defense industries including rada, missile production, and advanced electronic components, ship building; road and rail transportation equipment; communications equipment; agricultural machinery, tractors, and construction equipment; electric power generation and, transmitting equipment; medical and scientific instruments; consumer durables, foodstuffs, handicraft Source: The World Fact Book 2005 (www.cia.gov)