17,075,400 sq km (6,592,850 sq miles).

147,100,000 (1998).

8.6 per sq km.

Moscow.

8,436,447 (1994).

The Russian Federation covers almost twice the area of the United States of America, and reaches from Moscow in the west over the Urals and the vast Siberian plains to the Sea of Okhotsk in the east. The border between European Russia and Siberia (Asia) is formed by the Ural Mountains, the Ural River and the Manych Depression. European Russia extends from the North Polar Sea across the Central Russian Uplands to the Black Sea, the Northern Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. Siberia stretches from the West Siberian Plain across the Central Siberian Plateau between Yenisey and Lena, including the Sayan, Yablonovy and Stanovoy ranges in the south to the East Siberian mountains between Lena and the Pacific coast including the Chukotskiy and Kamchatka peninsulas.

Republic since 1991. Head of Government: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin since 1999. (Putin was also made acting Head of State, follwing the resignation of President Boris Yeltsin in December 1999.)

Russian. English, French or German are spoken by some people.

Mainly Christian with the Russian Orthodox Church being the largest Christian community. Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish minorities also exist.

Kaliningrad: GMT + 2 (GMT + 3 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Moscow, St Petersburg, Astrakhan: GMT + 3 (GMT + 4 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Izhevsk and Samara: GMT + 4 (GMT + 5 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Perm – Nizhnevartovsk: GMT + 5 (GMT + 6 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Omsk and Novosibirsk: GMT + 6 (GMT + 7 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Norilsk, Kyzyl: GMT + 7 (GMT + 8 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Bratsk – Ulan Ude: GMT + 8 (GMT + 9 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Chita, Yakutsk: GMT + 9 (GMT + 10 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Khabarovsk, Vladivostok: GMT + 10 (GMT + 11 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Magadan, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk: GMT + 11 (GMT + 12 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Petropavlosk: GMT + 12 (GMT + 13 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October).

220 volts AC, 50Hz.