2009 Russia

(Nation)
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Capital: Moscow
Official Language: Russian official throughout nation; twenty-seven others co-official in various regions
Government: Federal semi-presidential republic
Head of State: (leave this blank for players)
Formation: 862 AD
Population: 142,008,838 (2008)
Currency: Ruble (RUB)
¨Human Rights Record¨ Wikipedia article
¨Territorial Disputes¨ Wikipedia article
¨Ongoing Conflicts¨ In 2008 the Russian Federation entered Georgia to secure the independence of the breakaway Republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, this removed them from the control of Georgia and placed them under Russian protection read more here The Russians are also currently fighting the Second Chechen War against insurgents in that region
Welcome to the international embassy of the Russian Federation! (Player added remarks)
=Diplomatic Relations=
Nation currently enjoys diplomatic relations with (List)
Nation is a member of (List)
Nation is a signatory to the following treaties (list)
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=Summary=
Russia (Russian: Россия, Rossiya), or the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya), is a transcontinental country extending over much of northern Eurasia. It is a semi-presidential republic comprising 83 federal subjects. Russia shares land borders with the following countries (anticlockwise from northwest to southeast): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland (via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It also borders the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Caspian Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Black Sea. Russia is close to the United States (Alaska) and Japan.
At 17,075,400 square kilometers, Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than an eighth of the Earth’s land area; with 142 million people, it is the ninth largest by population. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning 11 time zones and incorporating a great range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's greatest reserves of mineral and energy resources, and is considered an energy superpower. It has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's unfrozen fresh water.
=Brief History=
The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs. The Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD.[12] Founded and ruled by Vikings and their descendants, the first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century and adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated and the lands were divided into many small feudal states. The most powerful successor state to Kievan Rus' was Moscow, which served as the main force in the Russian reunification process and independence struggle against the Golden Horde. Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland eastward to the Pacific Ocean and Alaska.
Russia established worldwide power and influence from the times of the Russian Empire to being the largest and leading constituent of the Soviet Union, the world's first and largest constitutionally socialist state and a recognized superpower. The nation can boast a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts and sciences. The Russian Federation was founded following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, but is recognized as the continuing legal personality of the Soviet Union. It has one of the world's fastest growing major economies and has the world's eleventh largest GDP by nominal GDP or seventh largest by purchasing power parity with the eighth largest military budget. Russia is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G8, APEC and the SCO, and is a leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. It is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
=Diplomatic Messages=
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=Resources=
*Russia on Wikipedia
*Russia on the BBC
*Russia on the CIA world factbook
*Homepage of the Russian government