Russia And The Russian Federation Essay

Being the world’s largest country by land area, nearly twice the size of Canada, Russia’s population ranks sixth in the world, and is spread across 5,000 miles from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. Russia borders 14 other countries, spans 11 time zones and has a wide range of environments that include deserts, deep forests, and an arctic tundra. Russia contains Europe’s longest river, the Volga River, as well as its largest lake, Lake Ladoga. Its climate can be described as highly continental, from extreme cold in its northern regions and Siberia to subtropical in areas along the Black Sea. Russia’s capital and largest city is Moscow, followed by St. Petersburg. These cities combined are Russia’s most prominent

Uniteds States’ foreign relations with Russia have been shaky even after the fall of the USSR in 1991, most notably because Russian leaders have never been very supportive of the United States’ global democratic influence. However, with the collapse of the Soviet economy, Russia realized that democratic economic policies were probably the only path to a successful and thriving country. But with recent U.S. intervention in Russian foreign policy over the annexation of Crimea and the unstable Ukrainian conflicts, relations with Russia have become especially hostile. Therefore the U.S. should take a look at the implications of losing stable relations with Russia (as it has in the past few years) and instead strengthen these relations, to

Moscow was founded as one of many small city-states in what is now Western Russia and Ukraine. In fact, Moscow was one of the last ones founded, as it was first established as a landmark sometime during the twelfth century. This is late for the period, as the powerful cities of Novgorod and Kiev are more than 300 years older. Founded by __Yuri Dolgorukiy__, it was soon important enough to have its own fortress, known as a __Kremlin__. Situated on the Moskva River, it was a considerable stronghold.

· The Russian Federation covers a large area (more than 10,000 kilometers east-west and more than 2500 kilometers north-south); it takes a full week to travel by train from St. Petersburg in the west to Vladivostok in the east. Russia is also predominantly northern, with nearly half its territory north of 60 degrees north latitude. Winters are generally long and cold, which keeps most ports and navigable rivers frozen or impassable for many months each year. With few peninsulas and with coastlines that are frozen for most of the year, Russia has

To this day Russia remains to be one of the bigger threats to our military with about 1.5 million personnel in their armed forces combined. This number includes ground forces, navel force, air force and ada forces. They remain one of the stronger forces due to their allotments to their ministry of defense with over 19 billion yearly in maintenance and salary of their forces. The country covers more than 17 million square kilometers with 10 percent of that being swamp lands and 45 percent being Forrest. Still with unemployment rates right around 8 percent Russia remains self-sufficient from a fuel and energy standpoint with their production of coal, natural gas, oil fuels. Coal makes up more than 18 percent of their main electric needs for their country. Transportation in the country continue to be a ever growing thing with over 900 thousand kilometers of roadways, eighty thousand kilometers of railways and over twenty five hundred airports in the country. With many religions as expected with such a big country the predominate on considers themselves as Russian orthodox which makes up about 75 percent, 19 percent consider themselves to be Muslim and 7 percent fall under other.

Russia is the largest territorial nation on earth. Also it is the most populous northern most nation. These two facts: the huge size and diversity of Russia and the extremely cold climate have contributed greatly to the imperial expansion of Russia. Because of the extreme cold of the far northern regions of Russia, in the 15th century the country began by building up the land around Moscow, St. Petersburg regions, centered on the Kola Peninsula. As the imperialist expansion of Russia grew the population centers remained in the central region and along the southern border of the country. This is because the trans-Siberian railroad was used to move industry to the far east of the country. Even today because of the extreme cold and permafrost

Geographically, Russia had been isolated due to its geographic setting as a landlocked power and the cold climate that consumes Russia for much of the year. Religiously, Russia was separated from Europe because of the divide between Christianity, Western Europeans being Catholic and Protestant, Eastern Europeans (with emphasis on Russians) being Eastern Orthodox. Peter the Great ruled Russia as czar from 1682 to 1725.

History Russia had a violent and turbulent history. It started off with the migration of the Slavic people. During the year 500 AD, the East Slavs settled in the area now known as Western Russia. They rarely had permanent settlements and no cities. According to the legends, around 750 AD, the Varangian warrior elite settled in Russia.

Russia, the largest nation in the world according to geographic terms is a country located in northern Asia, bordered by fourteen other countries (Kurian, 1), is one of the most powerful countries in the world. Besides military power, how did it get that way? The answer is simply, geography. Many people overlook the fact that geography has greatly influenced Russia’s power.

In the beginning, Russia was never really ‘Russia, ‘as we know it to be today but a group of cities coalesced into an empire. In the early ninth century, the Varangians crossed the Baltic Sea and landed to Eastern Europe. The Varangian people were lead by a semi legendary warrior named Rurik. In 862, he would lead his people into the city of Novgorod on the Volhov River. To this day, it is uncertain if his rule was one which would be taken by force or if he was invited. Rurik would invest a lot of time in the city of Novgord. In 882 Rurik’s successor, Oleg would help him to extend his power southward. Oleg would gain control of a Slavic city called Kiev. Kiev would become the center of a trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople. The empire would flourish for the next three hundred years under a new name, Kievan Rus.

Early Russia was not actually “Russia”, it was more of a collection of cities that gradually colonized into an empire. Scandinavian people known as varagains crossed the Baltic Sea and land in what is now Eastern Europe. Russia was once “Rus’ “ and that began in the pre 9th century. The early

Russia has formed the core of two great historical-political formations now faded away: the Tsarist Empire (until 1917) and the Soviet Union (1922-1991). Since 1991 is the political heart of the Russian Federation, which is part of the Commonwealth of Independent States. For much of its history, Russia was a backward country socially and economically, and authoritarian political point of view. In many ways it has also been - and still is - a country poised between East and West. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and until the beginning of the nineties of the 20th century its history has coincided with the parable of the rise and then the fall of Communism

Russia’s size and location have played a major role in its strategic outlook since the Middle Ages. Russia has no major natural landforms marking its borders, but it relies solely on its relatively inhospitable climate and its forests for defense,as a result, Russian history is a chronicle of periods of expansion and collapse. Traditionally these invasions have come from the steppes and beyond and from the North European Plain.

Russia is a vast nation that stretches from Eastern Europe across the Eurasian land mass. It was the most powerful republic of the former Soviet Union ethnic Russians composed about half of the population it is the world's largest country.

Russia is the largest country the world at over 17,000,000 sq. km, twice the extent of the United States. Laying on two continents the Russian Federation is split by the Ural Mountains; with European Russia to the west and Siberia east covering the entirety of northern Asia (8). Russia’s land mass traverses’ eleven different time zones and has multiple environments.