Russia |
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Introduction |
Background: Russia, a vast Eurasian expanse of field, forest, desert, and tundra, has endured many "times of trouble"the Mongol rule of the 13th to 15th century; czarist reigns of terror; massive invasions by Swedes, French, and Germans; and the deadly communist period (1917-91) in which Russia dominated an immense Soviet Union. General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV, in charge during 1985-91, introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize communism, but also inadvertently released forces that shattered the USSR into 15 independent republics in December 1991. Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy to replace the strict social, political, and economic controls of the communist period. These reform efforts have resulted in contradictory and confusing economic and political regulations and practices. Industry, agriculture, the military, the central government, and the ruble have suffered, but Russia has successfully held one presidential, two legislative, and numerous regional elections since 1991. The severe illnesses of President Boris YEL'TSIN have contributed to a lack of policy focus at the center.
Geography |
Location: Northern Asia (that part west of the Urals is sometimes included with Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean, between Europe and the North Pacific Ocean
Geographic coordinates: 60 00 N, 100 00 E
Map references: Asia
Area:
total: 17,075,200 sq km
land: 16,995,800 sq km
water: 79,400 sq km
Areacomparative: slightly less than 1.8 times the size of the US
Land boundaries:
total: 19,917 km
border countries: Azerbaijan 284 km, Belarus 959 km, China (southeast) 3,605 km, China (south) 40 km, Estonia 294 km, Finland 1,313 km, Georgia 723 km,
Kazakhstan 6,846 km, North Korea 19 km, Latvia 217 km, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast) 227 km, Mongolia 3,441 km, Norway 167 km, Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast) 206 km, Ukraine 1,576 km
Coastline: 37,653 km
Maritime claims:
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm
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: broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia; uplands and mountains along southern border regions
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m
highest point: Mount El'brus 5,633 m
Natural resources:
wide natural resource base including major deposits of oil, natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, timber
note: formidable obstacles of climate, terrain, and distance hinder
exploitation of natural resources
Land use:
arable land: 8%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 4%
forests and woodland: 46%
other: 42% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 40,000 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: permafrost over much of Siberia is a major impediment to development; volcanic activity in the Kuril Islands; volcanoes and earthquakes on the Kamchatka Peninsula
Environmentcurrent issues: air pollution from heavy industry, emissions of coal-fired electric plants, and transportation in major cities; industrial, municipal, and agricultural pollution of inland waterways and sea coasts; deforestation; soil erosion; soil contamination from improper application of agricultural chemicals; scattered areas of sometimes intense radioactive contamination
Environmentinternational agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species,
Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not
ratified: Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geographynote: largest country in the world in terms of area but unfavorably located in relation to major sea lanes of the world; despite its size, much of the country lacks proper soils and climates (either too cold or too dry) for agriculture
People |
Population: 146,393,569 (July 1999 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 19% (male 14,224,033; female 13,666,440)
15-64 years: 68% (male 48,407,409; female 51,768,664)
65 years and over: 13% (male 5,698,356; female
12,628,667) (1999 est.)
Population growth rate: -0.33% (1999 est.)
Birth rate: 9.64 births/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Death rate: 14.96 deaths/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Net migration rate: 2.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.45 male(s)/female
total population: 0.88 male(s)/female (1999 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 23 deaths/1,000 live births (1999 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 65.12 years
male: 58.83 years
female: 71.72 years (1999 est.)
Total fertility rate: 1.34 children born/woman (1999 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Russian(s)
adjective: Russian
Ethnic groups: Russian 81.5%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 3%, Chuvash 1.2%, Bashkir 0.9%, Byelorussian 0.8%, Moldavian 0.7%, other 8.1%
Religions: Russian Orthodox, Muslim, other
Languages: Russian, other
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 98%
male: 100%
female: 97% (1989 est.)
Government |
Country name:
conventiol`l long form: Russian Federation
conventional short form: Russia
local long form: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
local short form: Rossiya
former: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Data code: RS
Government type: federation
Capital: Moscow
Administrative divisions:
oblasts (oblastey, singularoblast'), 21 autonomous republics* (avtonomnyk respublik, singularavtonomnaya respublika), 10 autonomous okrugs**(avtonomnykh okrugov,
singularavtonomnyy okrug), 6 krays*** (krayev, singularkray), 2 federal cities (singulargorod)****, and 1 autonomous oblast*****(avtonomnaya oblast'); Adygeya (Maykop)*, Aginskiy
Buryatskiy (Aginskoye)**, Altay (Gorno-Altaysk)*, Altayskiy (Barnaul)***, Amurskaya (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'skaya, Astrakhanskaya, Bashkortostan (Ufa)*, Belgorodskaya, Bryanskaya, Buryatiya
(Ulan-Ude)*, Chechnya (Groznyy)*, Chelyabinskaya, Chitinskaya, Chukotskiy (Anadyr')**, Chuvashiya (Cheboksary)*, Dagestan (Makhachkala)*, Evenkiyskiy (Tura)**, Ingushetiya (Nazran')*, Irkutskaya,
Ivanovskaya, Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik)*, Kaliningradskaya, Kalmykiya (Elista)*, Kaluzkskaya, Kamchatskaya (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk)*, Kareliya
(Petrozavodsk)*, Kemerovskaya, Khabarovskiy***, Khakasiya (Abakan)*, Khanty-Mansiyskiy (Khanty-Mansiysk)**, Kirovskaya, Komi (Syktyvkar)*, Koryakskiy (Palana)**, Kostromskaya, Krasnodarskiy***,
Krasnoyarskiy***, Kurganskaya, Kurskaya, Leningradskaya, Lipetskaya, Magadanskaya, Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola)*, Mordoviya (Saransk)*, Moskovskaya, Moskva (Moscow)****, Murmanskaya, Nenetskiy
(Nar'yan-Mar)**, Nizhegorodskaya, Novgorodskaya, Novosibirskaya, Omskaya, Orenburgskaya, Orlovskaya (Orel), Penzenskaya, Permskaya, Komi-Permyatskiy (Kudymkar)**, Primorskiy (Vladivostok)***,
Pskovskaya, Rostovskaya, Ryazanskaya, Sakha (Yakutsk)*, Sakhalinskaya (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samarskaya, Sankt-Peterburg (Saint Petersburg)****, Saratovskaya, Severnaya Osetiya-Alaniya (Vladikavkaz)*,
Smolenskaya, Stavropol'skiy***, Sverdlovskaya (Yekaterinburg), Tambovskaya, Tatarstan (Kazan')*, Taymyrskiy (Dudinka)**, Tomskaya, Tul'skaya, Tverskaya, Tyumenskaya, Tyva (Kyzyl)*, Udmurtiya
(Izhevsk)*, Ul'yanovskaya, Ust'-Ordynskiy Buryatskiy (Ust'-Ordynskiy)**, Vladimirskaya, Volgogradskaya, Vologodskaya, Voronezhskaya, Yamalo-Nenetskiy (Salekhard)**, Yaroslavskaya, Yevreyskaya*****;
notewhen using a place name with an adjectival ending 'skaya' or 'skiy,' the word Oblast' or Avonomnyy Okrug or Kray should be added to the place name
note: the autonomous republics
of Chechnya and Ingushetiya were formerly the autonomous republic of Checheno-Ingushetia (the boundary between Chechnya and Ingushetia has yet to be determined); administrative divisions have the
same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses)
Independence: 24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)
National holiday: Independence Day, June 12 (1990)
Constitution: adopted 12 December 1993
Legal system: based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
chief of state: President Boris Nikolayevich YEL'TSIN (since 12 June 1991)
head of government: Premier Yevgeniy Maksimovich PRIMAKOV (since 11 September 1998), First Deputy
Premiers Yuriy Dmitriyevich MASLYUKOV (since 11 September 1998) and Vadim Anatol'yevich GUSTOV (since 11 September 1998); Deputy Premiers Vladimir Broisovich BULGAK (since 11 September 1998),
Gennadiy Vasil'yevich KULIK (since 11 September 1998), and Valentin Ivanovna MATVIYENKO (since 11 September 1998)
cabinet: Ministries of the Government or "Government" composed of the
premier and his deputies, ministers, and other agency heads; all are appointed by the president
note: there is also a Presidential Administration (PA) that provides staff and policy
support to the president, drafts presidential decrees, and coordinates policy among government agencies; a Security Council also reports directly to the president
elections: president
elected by popular vote for a four-year term; election last held 16 June 1996 with runoff election on 3 July 1996 (next to be held NA June 2000); noteno vice president; if the president dies in
office, cannot exercise his powers because of ill health, is impeached, or resigns, the premier succeeds him; the premier serves as acting president until a new presidential election is held, which
must be within three months; premier and deputy premiers appointed by the president with the approval of the Duma
election results: Boris Nikolayevich YEL'TSIN elected president; percent
of vote in runoffYEL'TSIN 54%, Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV 40%
Legislative branch:
bicameral Federal Assembly or Federal'noye Sobraniye consists of the Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (178 seats, filled ex-officio by the top executive and legislative officials in each of
the 89 federal administrative unitsoblasts, krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the federal cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg; members serve four-year terms) and the State
Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats, half elected in single-member districts and half elected from national party lists; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: State Dumalast held 17 December 1995 (next to be held NA December 1999)
election results: State Dumapercent of vote received by parties clearing the 5%
threshold entitling them to a proportional share of the 225 party list seatsCommunist Party of the Russian Federation 22.3%, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 11.2%, Our Home Is Russia 10.1%,
Yabloko Bloc 6.9%; seats by partyCommunist Party of the Russian Federation 157, independents 78, Our Home Is Russia 55, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 51, Yabloko Bloc 45, Agrarian Party of
Russia 20, Russia's Democratic Choice 9, Power To the People 9, Congress of Russian Communities 5, Forward, Russia! 3, Women of Russia 3, other parties 15
Judicial branch: Constitutional Court, judges are appointed for life by the Federation Council on the recommendation of the president; Supreme Court, judges are appointed for life by the Federation Council on the recommendation of the president; Superior Court of Arbitration, judges are appointed for life by the Federation Council on the recommendation of the president
Political parties and leaders:
pro-market democrats: Yabloko Bloc [Grigoriy Alekseyevich YAVLINSKIY]; Pravoye Delo (Just Cause), a coalition of reformist, western-oriented movements [Yegor Timurovich GAYDAR,
Anatoliy Borisovich CHUBAYS, Boris Yefimovich NEMTSOV, Sergey Vladlenovich KIRIYENKO]
centrists/special interest parties: Fatherland [Yuriy Mikhailovich LUZHKOV]; Russian People's
Republican Party [Aleksandr Ivanovich LEBED]; Our Home Is Russia [Viktor Stepanovich CHERNOMYRDIN]
anti-market and/or ultranationalist: Communist Party of the Russian Federation [Gennadiy
Andreyevich ZYUGANOV]; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia [Vladimir Vol'fovich ZHIRINOVSKIY]; Agrarian Party [Mikhail Ivanovich LAPSHIN]; Working Russia [Viktor Ivanovich ANPILOV and Stanislav
TEREKHOV]; Russian National Unity [Aleksandr BARKASHOV]
note: some 150 political parties, blocs, and movements registered with the Justice Ministry as of the 19 December 1998 deadline to
be eligible to participate in the scheduled December 1999 Duma elections; in 1995, 43 political organizations qualified to run slates of candidates on the Duma party list ballot; among the parties
not listed above but holding seats in the Duma were Russia's Democratic Choice, Power To the People, Congress of Russian Communities, Forward, Russia!, and Women of Russia
Political pressure groups and leaders: NA
International organization participation: APEC, BIS, BSEC, CBSS, CCC, CE, CERN (observer), CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, ESCAP, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MINURSO, MONUA, MTCR, NSG, OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMIBH, UNMOP, UNOMIG, UNOMSIL, UNPREDEP, UNTSO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO (applicant), ZC
Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Yuliy Mikhaylovich VORONTSOV
chancery: 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
telephone: [1] (202) 298-5700 through 5704
FAX: [1] (202) 298-5735
consulate(s) general: New York, San Francisco, and Seattle
Diplomatic representation from the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador James F. COLLINS
embassy: Novinskiy Bul'var 19/23, Moscow
mailing address: APO AE 09721
telephone: [7] (095) 252-24-51
through 59
FAX: [7] (095) 956-42-61
consulate(s) general: St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg
Flag description: three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red
Economy |
Economyoverview: Seven years after the collapse of the USSR, Russia is still struggling to establish a modern market economy and achieve strong economic growth. Russian GDP has contracted an estimated 43% since 1991, including a 5% drop in 1998, despite the country's wealth of natural resources, its well-educated population, and its diversealthough increasingly dilapidatedindustrial base. By the end of 1997, Russia had achieved some progress. Inflation had been brought under control, the ruble was stabilized, and an ambitious privatization program had transferred thousands of enterprises to private ownership. Some important market-oriented laws were also passed, including a commercial code governing business relations and an arbitration court for resolving economic disputes. But in 1998, the Asian financial crisis swept through the country, contributing to a sharp decline in russia's earnings from oil exports and resulting in an exodus of foreign investors. Matters came to a head in August 1998 when the government allowed the ruble to fall precipitously and stopped payment on $40 billion in ruble bonds. Ongoing problems include an undeveloped legal and financial system, poor progress on restructuring the military-industrial complex, and persistently large budget deficits, largely reflecting the inability of successive governments to collect sufficient taxes. Russia's transition to a market economy has also been slowed by the growing prevalence of payment arrears and barter and by widespread corruption. The severity of Russia's economic problems is dramatized by the large annual decline in population, estimated by some observers at 800,000 people, caused by environmental hazards, the decline in health care, and the unwillingness of people to have children.
GDP: purchasing power parity$593.4 billion (1998 est.)
GDPreal growth rate: -5% (1998 est.)
GDPper capita: purchasing power parity$4,000 (1998 est.)
GDPcomposition by sector:
agriculture: 7%
industry: 39%
services: 54% (1997)
Population below poverty line: 28.6% (1998 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 3%
highest 10%: 22.2% (1993)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 84% (1998 est.)
Labor force: 66 million (1997)
Labor forceby occupation: NA
Unemployment rate: 11.5% (1998 est.) with considerable additional underemployment
Budget:
revenues: $40 billion
expenditures: $63 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1998 est.)
Industries: complete range of mining and extractive industries producing coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and metals; all forms of machine building from rolling mills to high-performance aircraft and space vehicles; shipbuilding; road and rail transportation equipment; communications equipment; agricultural machinery, tractors, and construction equipment; electric power generating and transmitting equipment; medical and scientific instruments; consumer durables, textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts
Industrial production growth rate: -5.5% (1998 est.)
Electricityproduction: 834 billion kWh (1997)
Electricityproduction by source:
fossil fuel: 68.14%
hydro: 19%
nuclear: 12.82%
other: 0.04% (1997)
Electricityconsumption: 788.036 billion kWh (1996)
Electricityexports: 24.2 billion kWh (1996)
Electricityimports: 6.6 billion kWh (1996)
Agricultureproducts: grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, vegetables, fruits; beef, milk
Exports: $71.8 billion (1998 est.)
Exportscommodities: petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures
Exportspartners: Ukraine, Germany, US, Belarus, other Western and less developed countries
Imports: $58.5 billion (1998 est.)
Importscommodities: machinery and equipment, consumer goods, medicines, meat, grain, sugar, semifinished metal products
Importspartners: Europe, North America, Japan, and less developed countries
Debtexternal: $164 billion (yearend 1998)
Economic aidrecipient: $8.523 billion (1995)
Currency: 1 ruble (R) = 100 kopeks
Exchange rates:
rubles per US$122.2876 (January 1999), 9.7051 (1998), 5,785 (1997), 5,121 (1996), 4,559 (1995), 2,191 (1994)
note: the post-1 January 1998 ruble is equal to 1,000 of the pre-1
January 1998 rubles
Fiscal year: calendar year
Communications |
Telephones: 23.8 million (1997 est.)
Telephone system:
the telephone system has undergone significant changes in the 1990's; there are more than 1,000 companies licensed to offer communication services; access to digital lines has improved,
particularly in urban centers; Internet and e-mail services are improving; Russia has made progress toward building the telecommunications infrastructure necessary for a market economy
domestic: cross country digital trunk lines run from St. Petersburg to Khabarovsk, and from Moscow to Novorossiysk; the telephone systems in 60 regional capitals have modern digital
infrastructures; cellular services, both analog and digital, are available in many areas; in rural areas, the telephone services are still outdated, inadequate, and low density
international: Russia is connected internationally by three undersea fiber-optic cables; digital switches in several cities provide more than 50,000 lines for international calls; satellite
earth stations provide access to Intelsat, Intersputnik, Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and Orbita
Radio broadcast stations: AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA; notethere are about 1,050 (including AM, FM, and shortwave) radio broadcast stations throughout the country
Radios: 50 million (1993 est.) (74.3 million radio receivers with multiple speaker systems for program diffusion)
Television broadcast stations: 11,000 (1996 est.)
Televisions: 54.85 million (1992 est.)
Transportation |
Railways:
total: 150,000 km; note87,000 km in common carrier service; 63,000 km serve specific industries and are not available for common carrier use
broad gauge: 150,000 km
1.520-m gauge (January 1997 est.)
Highways:
total: 948,000 km (including 416,000 km which serve specific industries or farms and are not maintained by governmental highway maintenance departments)
paved: 336,000 km
unpaved: 612,000 km (including 411,000 km of graveled or some other form of surfacing and 201,000 km of unstabilized earth) (1995 est.)
Waterways: total navigable routes in general use 101,000 km; routes with navigation guides serving the Russian River Fleet 95,900 km; routes with night navigational aids 60,400 km; man-made navigable routes 16,900 km (January 1994 est.)
Pipelines: crude oil 48,000 km; petroleum products 15,000 km; natural gas 140,000 km (June 1993 est.)
Ports and harbors: Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Kaliningrad, Kazan', Khabarovsk, Kholmsk, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Murmansk, Nakhodka, Nevel'sk, Novorossiysk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, St. Petersburg, Rostov, Sochi, Tuapse, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Vostochnyy, Vyborg
Merchant marine:
total: 617 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 4,146,329 GRT/5,278,909 DWT
ships by type: barge carrier 1, bulk 19, cargo 309, combination bulk 21, combination ore/oil 6,
container 25, multifunction large-load carrier 1, oil tanker 149, passenger 35, passenger-cargo 3, refrigerated cargo 16, roll-on/roll-off cargo 25, short-sea passenger 7 (1998 est.)
Airports: 2,517 (1994 est.)
Airportswith paved runways:
total: 630
over 3,047 m: 54
2,438 to 3,047 m: 202
1,524 to 2,437 m: 108
914 to 1,523 m: 115
under 914 m: 151 (1994 est.)
Airportswith unpaved runways:
total: 1,887
over 3,047 m: 25
2,438 to 3,047 m: 45
1,524 to 2,437 m: 134
914 to 1,523 m: 291
under 914 m: 1,392 (1994 est.)
Military |
Military branches:
Ground Forces, Navy, Air Forces, Strategic Rocket Forces
note: the Air Defense Force merged into the Air Force in March 1998
Military manpowermilitary age: 18 years of age
Military manpoweravailability:
males age 15-49: 38,665,138 (1999 est.)
Military manpowerfit for military service:
males age 15-49: 30,173,495 (1999 est.)
Military manpowerreaching military age annually:
males: 1,149,536 (1999 est.)
Military expendituresdollar figure:
$NA
note: the Intelligence Community estimates that defense spending in Russia fell by about 10% in real terms in 1996, reducing Russian defense outlays to about one-sixth of peak
Soviet levels in the late 1980s (1997 est.)
Military expenditurespercent of GDP: NA%
Transnational Issues |
Disputesinternational: dispute over at least two small sections of the boundary with China remain to be settled, despite 1997 boundary agreement; islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, and Shikotan and the Habomai group occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia, claimed by Japan; Caspian Sea boundaries are not yet determined among Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan; Estonian and Russian negotiators reached a technical border agreement in December 1996 which has not been ratified; draft treaty delimiting the boundary with Latvia has not been signed; has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other nation; 1997 border agreement with Lithuania not yet ratified; Svalbard is the focus of a maritime boundary dispute in the Barents Sea between Norway and Russia
Illicit drugs: limited cultivation of illicit cannabis and opium poppy and producer of amphetamines, mostly for domestic consumption; government has active eradication program; increasingly used as transshipment point for Southwest and Southeast Asian opiates and cannabis and Latin American cocaine to Western Europe, possibly to the US, and growing domestic market