 Official name: the Russian
Federation - Russia Political system: the Democratic Federal State with
Republican political system Geographical location: in the Eastern part of Europe
and Northern part of Asia Area: 17,075 million sq. km Population: 146,3 million
people (2000), Russian - 81%, Tatar - 3,8%, Ukrainian - 3% Capital: Moscow -
8,39 million people (1999) Major cities: Saint-Petersburg - 4,73 million people,
Novosibirsk - 1,4 million people, Nizhny Novgorod - 1,36 million people,
Ekaterinburg - 1,27 million people; other cities with population over 1 million
people - Samara, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Perm, Ufa, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd
(1999) Main languages: Russian (official), Ukrainian, Belorussian, Tatar,
Armenian, etc. - in total over 100 languages Religions: Orthodox, Muslims,
Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists Climate: from sea on the Far North-West
to sharply continental in Siberia and monsoon on the Far East Average
temperature: from -50C to 0C in January; from -1C to +26C in July Monetary unit:
rouble Local time: standart time - from GMT+2 (Kaliningrad) to GMT+12
(Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky); summer time - from GMT+3 to GMT+13 National
holidays: May, 9th - the Victory Day (1945); June, 12th - the National
Sovereignty Declaration Day (1990); November, 7th - the Consert and
Reconciliation Day (1996); December, 12th - the Constitution Day (1993) Major
tourist sights: over 100 preserves and national parks; Volga, Ob, Yenisei, Lena,
Amur rivers, Baikal lake, Black sea resorts, peaks of Caucasus mountains and
Caucasian Mineralnye Vody resorts, Teletskoe lake in Altai mountains, geysers
and volcanoes of Kamchatka; in Moscow: the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin Mausoleum,
Armory, Vasily the Blessed Cathedral, Tretyakov Arts Gallery, Borodino Panorama
Memorial, Andrey Rublyov Museum, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Kuskovo,
Kolomenskoye, Ostankino, Tsaritsino, Arkhangelskoye Estate Museums; in
Saint-Petersburg: Hermitage, Russian Arts Museum, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peter
and Paul Fortress, Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Museum of Anthropology and
Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Peterhoff, Pavlovsk, Tsar Selo (Pushkin), Gatchina
Palace and Garden Ensembles; ancient Russian towns of "The Golden Ring":
Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov Veliky, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Suzdal, Vladimir,
Sergiev Posad, Yuriev; Historic and Architectural Museum preserve in Smolensk,
the Kremlin and Ivan the Terrible Palace in Vologda, Kizhi wooden Architectural
Museum, the Kremlin and Historical Monuments of Veliky Novgorod, Solovetsky
Monastery on White sea, Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery and Pushkinsky Gory Museum
preserve in Pskov, the Kremlin in Kazan, Historical and Architectural Museum
preserve in Tobolsk, Stalingrad Battle Panorama-Museum (1942) in Volgograd
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