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Facts about Russia & Links

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Basic Statistics

Current Situation & People

Religious Life

Country name:

• conventional long form: Russian Federation
• conventional short form: Russia

• chief of state: President Dmitriy Mikhailovich Medvedev
  
• head of government: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
  
• cabinet: "Government" (Pravitelstvo) composed of the premier and his deputies, ministers, and other agency heads; all are appointed by the President
  

Legislative branch: bicameral Federal Assembly consists of the Federation Council and the State Duma
Legal system: based on civil law system

Administrative divisions:
The Russian Federation comprises 83 federal subjects. These subjects have equal representation - two delegates each - in the Federation Council. However, they differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy.

• 46 oblasts (provinces): most common type of federal subjects, with federally appointed governor and locally elected legislature.
• 21 republics: nominally autonomous; each has its own constitution, president, and parliament. Republics are allowed to establish their own official language alongside Russian but are represented by the federal government in international affairs. Republics are meant to be home to specific ethnic minorities.
• Nine krais (territories): essentially the same as oblasts. The "territory" designation is historic, originally given to frontier regions and later also to administrative divisions that comprised autonomous okrugs or autonomous oblasts.
• Four autonomous okrugs (autonomous districts): originally autonomous entities within oblasts and krais created for ethnic minorities, their status was elevated to that of federal subjects in the 1990s. With the exception of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, all autonomous okrugs are still administratively subordinated to a krai or an oblast of which they are a part.
• One autonomous oblast (the Jewish Autonomous Oblast): originally autonomous oblasts were administrative units subordinated to krais. In 1990, all of them except the Jewish AO were elevated in status to that of a republic.
• Two federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg): major cities that function as separate regions.

Population: According to preliminary estimates, the resident population of the Russian Federation on 1 January 2008 was 142 million people. The Russian Federation is a diverse, multiethnic society, home to as many as 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples.
Official languages: Russian (in many federal subjects, local language(s) + Russian)
Religions: Christian (predominantly Russian Orthodox, small number of Protestants and Roman Catholics), Muslim, Judaist, Lama Buddhism, animist/shamanist, other. (top)

The Russian Federation, or Russia, is a federative state consisting of 83 federal subjects (21 republics, 9 territories, 46 provinces and several other types of entities) with different degrees of independence in their internal affairs. Russia spreads across 6.6 million square miles of eastern Europe and northern Asia and spans 11 time zones-the largest country in the world. Russia is also the largest member state of the Commonwealth of Independent States, an association of former Soviet states which furthers friendly relations and economic cooperation among them).

In the Soviet Union, Russia was the part which was called The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the largest of the 15 constituent republics of the Soviet Union. In 1991, the USSR was dissolved and Russia became a separate state - The Russian Federation.

The Federation has an immense wealth of natural resources - oil, gas, coal and strategic metals - and could be the wealthiest country in the world. However, much of Russia's population of 145 million finds daily living difficult as the government attempts to lead it from the confusion of the post-communist nineties toward rule of law and a stable economy. Russia is a country of glaring social contrasts. Despite economic revival, one fourth of the population still survives on less than $2 a day, below the official subsistence line ($59 a month in 2003). However, Russia's head count of billionaires (primarily, oil tycoons) is the fourth highest in the world.

About 73 percent of the people live in urban areas. The average population density country-wide is only nine persons per square mile with the region of Siberia having one of the lowest population densities in the world

About 80 percent of the Federation's population are Russians (a Slavic people). They live throughout the territory of the RF as the predominant population of most areas apart from the 21 republics (where they live as well but may not be the majority).

In Russia, Russians live side by side with a multitude of other ethnic groups. Already in the Soviet time, Russia, one of the 15 consituent republics of the USSR, had a complex administrative subdivision within itself (where a major principle was limited autonomy for different ethnic groups). Today, this administrative territorial subdivision of the RF is much the same as in the Soviet time. However, the status of many areas has changed. The 21 republics were formed by those of the non-Slavic ethnoses in Russia that desired larger ethnic, cultural, economic, and to a certain extent political autonomy (in the Soviet time they could not have their own presidents and parliaments). Other non-Slavic ethnoses stay with the former, less independent, status ("autonomous region" or "circuit").

In April 1992, the subjects signed a federative agreement with federal authorities which confirmed the form of the State - a Federation. A little later, a special agreement on division of powers was signed with Tatarstan followed by agreements with the other republics in the RF and with properly Russian regions. Agreements with federal subjects regulate division of powers between the central and local authorities. One of the constant challenges of home policy is coordination of federal and local laws and correct division of power.

As per the official 2002 census the total population of Russia is 145,166,731 people (over against 147 mln. as per Census 1989).

Below are just a few examples of the largest ethnic groups in the Russian Federation. As per Census 2002, by number and percentage in descending order:

As was indicated above, there are many other ethnic groups in Russia (160 in total). Especially multiple are the ethnoses of the Caucasus and the indigenous nations of the North and Siberia (although each can be fairly small).

There are 597,212 Germans and 34,050 Finns in the RF (Census 2002).

For 70 years, the expressed policy of the Communist Party was the suppression of religion, or "superstition," as it was called. The Party promoted atheism and forbade all open expressions of faith. Millions of Christians were imprisoned or died for their faith, and 90 percent of church properties were confiscated by the government or destroyed. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, a multi-party democracy was instituted. Today religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed. Despite communism's influence, around 59 percent of RF citizens are Christian - mainly members of the Russian Orthodox Church (approx. 60 million) or of one of a dozen other small Orthodox church bodies. Muslims, especially among the Federation's southern Turkic and Caucasus peoples, are the second largest religious group, claiming 10 percent of the population. As high as 31 percent claims to be non-religious. (top)

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