Russian Federation/sandbox

(: Россия), officially the (: Российская Демократическая Федеративная Республика), sometimes shortened to just  (Russian: РДФР), is a federal constitutional presidential republic straddling the continents of Europa and Orientia. Russia is geopolitically part of Europa, and is composed of sixty-four self-governing Provinces that have been irreversibly delegated a massive range of competence by the Russian Federal Government; Petrograd, as the Federal capital of the Russian DFR, is not a Province but the “common space of all sixty-four constituent Provinces of the Federation”, and as such it is wholly subordinated to the Provinces-in-assembly, or, in other words, to the Russian Federal Parliament.

Extending across the entirety of northern Orientia and much of Eastern Europa, Russia spans nine time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the Canadian Commonwealth of Alaska across the Bering Strait.

Russia, a Federation of sixty-four Provinces and the Federal City of Petrograd, is a representative and Nordic-style social democracy, and a presidential republic. With a large and well-organized welfare state, Russia is oftentimes equated as being “Sweden in federal form” and also “Sweden with Canadian characteristics”.

The nation’s history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europa between the 1st and 5th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus’ arose in the 6th century. In 688 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus’ ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus’ lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde. The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus’. By the 15th 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 in Europa to Alaska in North Aegea.

The Russian economy ranks as the ?? largest by nominal GDP and ?? largest by purchasing Power parity. The Russian Democratic Federative Republic has extensive mineral and energy resources, the largest reserves in the world, which have made the Federation one of the largest producers of oil and natural gas globally. Russia also is home to the largest known deposits in the world of Platinum, and large deposits of gold and other ores and precious metals are also known to be present in the country. The Russian DFR is one of the ?? recognized nuclear weapons states and as of 1714 possessed the largest stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons, the second-largest stockpile of strategic nuclear weapons, and the second-largest stockpile of chemical weapons; and as for biological and toxin weapons, the Federation had fully decommissioned its biotoxin weapons program by 1719, reorienting its stockpiles towards vaccine research and development. The Russian Democratic Federative Republic is one of the six global superpowers of Kobol and a founding member of the United States of Kobol Organization (USKO); a member of the Kobol Trade Organization (KTO), the G12, the Council of Europa (CE), the Euro-Pacific Cooperation Treaty (EPCOT), the Eastern European Community (EEC), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europa (OSCE), as well as the USKO-wide Global Defense Initiative (GDI).

History
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Early periods
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Kyivan Rus’
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Grand Duchy of Moscow
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Tsardom of Russia
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Russian Empire
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Revolution and Russian Republic
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Soviet Russia and Civil War
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Russian Democratic Federative Republic
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Federalism
<!-- In the Russian Democratic Federative Republic the Sovereignty is vested exclusively in the People, and the exercise of the People’s sovereign Powers of the Russian State is divided between the Federation and the Provinces. The Federation and the Provinces, as constituting two separate divisions of the total Sovereignty of the Russian State, are each allocated exclusive jurisdiction over separate sets of legislative, executive, and judicial competence; however, sovereignty resides exclusively in the People of the respective Provinces in that the People in each of them and their Provincial governments retain exclusive and supreme jurisdiction over all Classes of Subject Matter that have not been expressly and intentionally delegated to the Federation. Within their own fields of competence, the Federation and the Provinces, respectively, are sovereign and supreme in their respective Authorities; and together, the Federal and the Provincial Powers form one complete sovereign, where neither may reduce the other to itself (e.g., the Federation cannot abolish the Provinces and absorb their Powers for itself, just as no Province can unilaterally abolish the Federation without the Consent of all sixty-four of them), and where the existence of each depends on the existence of both —e.g., the Federation cannot exist without the existence of the Provinces, just as the Provinces cannot exist without the Federation.

Federalism in Russia is symmetrical, whereby the sovereignty possessed by and the sovereign Powers guaranteed to each Province is equal to that which is possessed by and guaranteed to all of the Provinces. Under the Russian Empire, the previous Constitution prescribed an asymmetric federalism, whereby some regions were more afforded more autonomy than were others, in which the least autonomous of them were, to all intents and purposes, merely local extensions of the Federal government (this system is known as a “federacy”).

The vast majority of sovereign Power is retained by the individual Provinces (“Reserved Powers”); only a select few enumerated Classes of Subject Matter have been expressly and deliberately delegated to Russia (“Enumerated Powers”) to be exercised on behalf of all of the Provinces and the People thereof for the benefit of them all of them, respectively. Such enumerated Powers include those for providing for a regular and orderly system of trade between the Provinces (freedom of movement, labor, capital, and services between each Province); making Treaties with foreign States (however, the obligations of a Treaty are performed by whatever Power –Federal or Provincial– that has competence over the Class or Classes of Subject Matter embraced in the Treaty); providing for the common Defense of the Provinces and the Federation as a whole by raising and supporting Armies, providing and maintaining a Navy and an Air Force, and to provide a uniform, Federation-wide code of general (macro) military regulations for the respective Provincial gengarmeries; to make Rules for the Government of the Federal Army, Federal Navy, and Federal Air Force of Russia; to make uniform Rules for Governing such part of the Provincial Gendarmeries that may, from time to time, be called into the express service of the Russian DFR (and each Province is reserved the Power to appoint and remove the Officers in its Gendarmerie); establishing Federal courts and defining their jurisdiction; establishing uniform Rules throughout Russia on the subjects of Naturalization and Bankruptcy; providing for a Federation-wide meteorological Service; providing for a safe, regular, and ordered regime for the All-Russian airspace; arbitrating disputes between two or more Provinces; setting a uniform Standard on Weights and Measurements; establishing and maintaining Post offices and Post routes; establishing throughout Russia uniform Rules on the subjects of Copyright and Patent; providing reimbursement to the Provinces for the efficient operation and maintenance of their respective systems of universal healthcare; defining and punishing Piracy and crimes against the Law of Nations; and exercising exclusive jurisdiction, over all subjects whatsoever, over the Federal capital city of Moscow: All Powers not expressly and intentionally delegated to the Federation, including the police Power, are perpetually and irrevocably retained exclusively by the Provinces respectively or by the People. -->

The Federation
The Federal head of the Russian Democratic Federative Republic is the Government of the Federation.

Federal Parliament


The legislative Power of the Government of the Russian Democratic Federative Republic is vested exclusively in the Federal Parliament of Russia (: Федеральное Скупщиние) –officially the. The Federal Parliament is a bicameral Legislature consisting of an upper house styled “Senate of the Federation” (: Сенат Федерации) and a lower house called the “House of Delegates” (: Палата Делегатов). The consent of both Houses is necessary to pass legislation, whereafter it becomes law upon the approval of the President, or if the President vetoes the legislation, then upon the subsequent re-passing of the bill in each House by a two-thirds supermajority of the total Membership of each of them, respectively.

The Senate of the Federation (: Сенат Федерации), commonly known as the, officially the  , is the upper house of the Federal Parliament of the RDFR, and through this Body the sixty-four Provinces of Russia both, a) participate directly in the governance of the Federation at the Federal level, and, b) safeguard their residual Sovereignty.

The composition of the Federation Senate is different from several other similar legislative Bodies representing Regions. Senators are not elected, but appointed by the Provincial Governor by and with the Advice and Consent of the Provincial Legislature. There are one hundred twenty-eight Senators, two from each Province. In addition, each Province’s Senators are at-will employees of the Governor, and their paycheck comes not from the Government of Russia, but from the Senator’s home Province. In addition, each Province has two Votes in the Senate, and the two Senators from each Province must cast their Votes pursuant to instructions given to them by the Governor thereof —the Province’s two Votes cannot be divided (a non-unanimous Vote by a Province’s delegation spoils the Vote of that Province). However, on Treaty ratification Votes, the Senators from each Province cast their Votes pursuant to instructions from the Legislature thereof, and only in this situation may the Votes cast by each Province’s delegation be non-unanimous.

The Senate of the Federation, to the exclusion of the House of Delegates, have the sole Power of ratifying Treaties signed by the President, provided that the competence(s) embraced in the Treaty fall under Federal Jurisdiction (for Treaties embracing non-Federal competences, i.e., residual Provincial competences, see Status of Treaties at the Provincial level). Without both the President’s signature and the proper ratification, Treaties cannot be enforced in Russia; and until a Treaty is ratified, no obligations arising from the Treaty are binding on the Russian Democratic Federative Republic or any place subject to its jurisdiction. Also, the Senate have the sole Power of originating appropriations and other budget Bills, and of trying impeachment Cases brought forward by the House of Delegates (when the President of Russia is tried, the Chief Justice of the RDFR presides).



The House of Delegates of Russia (: Палата Делегатов России), officially the  is the lower house of the bicameral Federal Parliament, and is the Federal-level representation of the People of the 64 respective Provinces. There are 460 Delegates, elected under a system of mixed-member proportional representation whereby 320 of the 460 Delegates are elected in sixty-four 5-member all-province districts (five Delegates per entire Province) with the remaining 140 Delegates apportioned among the respective Provinces reckoned according to population, and, in each of them, Delegates are elected on the basis of open-list proportional representation.

Federal Executive
The executive branch of the Russian Federal Government consists of the President of Russia and the heads of the various ministries and agencies with ministry-level status. Together, the President and ministers and agency heads compose the Council of the Federation. The Federation Council is the Russian-equivalent to the council of ministers or government in other states, and carries out (executes) the various Laws adopted by the Federal Parliament. According to the Constitution of Russia, all executive Power of the Russian Democratic Federative Republic is vested in the Office of President; however, in practice the President delegates enforcement authority to the various ministries, agencies with ministry-level status, and other executive branch bodies, with the President maintaining oversight over the operation of the Federation’s executive and administrative apparatus.



Even though the Russian Democratic Federative Republic is legally a Republic, the Federation Council effectively operates as a form of an elective and egalitarian quasi-monarchy (see: crowned republic), whereby the President of the Federation is initially elected to a four year Term by the People, but two Years into that four-Year Term the Russian people are asked if the current President should be retained in Office for another four Years after his current Term expires. If the Vote is in the affirmative, then the President retains his Commission for another Term (with another retention Election taking place halfway into the following Term), and the process repeats for as many times as necessary, until the retention of the incumbent is rejected at the polls and finishes out the remainder of his Term, or resigns or is otherwise unable or unwilling to seek or serve another Term. If the sitting President loses a retention Election, he finishes the remainder of his current Term –in addition, he must endure a four Year respite before seeking or serving another Term as President or any post included in the Presidential line of succession– and new Elections are held for the presidency on the general Election Day in the Year next preceding the end of the current Term. Other than losing a retention Election, a sitting President may only be removed from Office against his will by way of impeachment by the House of Delegates, and conviction by the Senate, for treason, bribery, or other serious crime —and persons removed from Office by impeachment are forever disqualified to hold public Office at any level of government in Russia. In effect, this means that a Person serving as President, so long as he does not bring the Office of President into ill repute, and as long as he continues to maintain the Confidence of the Russian electorate, could effectively serve as President for the rest of his life; although, in practice, this does not usually turn out to be the case. However, the office of President is not hereditary: Whenever there is a Vacancy in the Office of President by way of death, incapacitation, removal (by impeachment, losing an Election, or other), or resignation, Elections to fill the Vacancy in the Office of President must take place on the next upcoming general Election Day. During such a Vacancy in the Office of President, the Powers and Duties of the said Office devolve upon the Speaker of the Senate, who serves as Acting-President (mentioned as “President pro Tempore” –literally, “President for a Time”– in the official English translation of the Constitution of Russia) until a new President is elected, qualified, and thereafter sworn in.



To advise and assist the President in the execution of his responsibilities, there is a council of ministers, called the Council of the Federation (: Совет Федераций ), officially the, composed of the principle Officer in each of the various Federal Executive ministries and the heads of various Federal Agencies with ministry-level status. There are eight Federal Executive ministries and six Federal Agencies with ministry-level status, as follows:
 * – Ministry for Foreign Affairs
 * – Ministry for Federal Affairs
 * – Ministry for Internal Affairs
 * – Ministry for Justice
 * – Ministry for Defence and Civil Protection
 * – Ministry for Finance
 * – Ministry for International Trade
 * – Ministry for Transport
 * – Ministry for Transport


 * – Federal Bank of Russia
 * – Office of the Federal Auditor-General
 * – Office of the Federal Ombudsman-General
 * – Federal Agency for Environmental Protection
 * – Federal Agency for Coast and Border Guard
 * – Federal Agency for Immigration and Customs
 * – Federal Agency for Immigration and Customs

Federal Courts
At the Federal level, judicial Power is vested in the federal Courts of the Russian Democratic Federative Republic, which consist of three different Courts, namely the Supreme Court of the RDFR, the Circuit Court of the RDFR, and the District Court of the RDFR. The Supreme Court has administrative oversight over all federal Courts in the RDFR.



The Supreme Court of Russia (: Верховный Суд России), offically the, is the final Court of last resort, as well as the final appellate Court in the Russian Federal judiciary.

The Court is also the final interpreter of the Russian Federal Constitution and of the constitutionality of Federal laws with respect to the Federal Constitution. The Supreme Court has limited Power to declare Provincial laws unconstitutional, only able to do so where a Provincial law or constitutional provision conflicts with the Federal Constitution or, in rare cases, with a Federal law.



The Circuit Court of Russia (: Кругооборотй Суд России), officially the, is an intermediate appellate Court, but it is not a trial court. This Court can only review civil and criminal cases tried in District Court and, in certain circumstances, Provincial Court, but only where there is a Federal question present. The Circuit Court is divided into eight regional Circuits, and each Circuit encompasses eight Provinces and the District Court divisions conterminous with each of those eight Provinces.



The District Court of Russia (: Окружный Суд России), officially the, is the Federal-level trial Court, and has limited jurisdiction over a few civil and criminal Matters under Federal law; all other Federal civil and criminal Matters not assigned to this Court by the Federal Parliament are devolved by the same to the Courts of the several Provinces. The District Court is constituted as a single Court, but with a number of divisions equal to the number of Provinces, plus one for Petrograd (currently sixty-five). Usually, a District Court division is based in a Province's capital city, but in more populous Provinces the Court for that Province may meet in additional places.

The rules of procedure of the District Court are split sixty-five ways. This is because the Legislature of each Province prescribes the rules of procedure not only for that Province’s Court system, but also for the Federal District Court division in and for that Province; and the Federal government proscribes such rules for the Federal City of Petrograd. Such rules of procedure include, but are not limited to, rules of evidence, civil and criminal procedure …

Provinces
The Russian Democratic Federative Republic is a federation of sixty-four nominally-autonomous Provinces. Each Province of the Russian DFR is styled in the form “Province of (name)”; and each has its own governing institutions consisting of legislative, executive, and judicial bodies that operate independently from those of the Federation and from those of the other Provinces.

Legislature
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Executive
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Judicial
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Geography
The Russian Democratic Federative Republic is the second largest country on Kobol, boasting more than 17 million square kilometres of territory. The only country larger than Russia is the United Aegean Republic. From Pskov in the west to Chukotka in the east, the Federation spans nine time zones, or a span of a little less than one-half the circumference of Kobol; the total area of the Federation is 17060300 km2. In the Russian DFR, there are 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Russia, 40 UNESCO biosphere reserves, NUM national parks and 101 nature reserves.

Russia has a wide natural resource base, including major deposits of timber, petroleum, natural gas, coal, platinum, gold, iron, uranium, tiberium, ores and other mineral resources.

Topography
Most of Russia consists of vast stretches of plains that are predominantly steppe to the south and heavily forested to the north, with tundra along the northern coast. Russia possesses 10% of the planet's arable land. Mountain ranges are found along the southern borders, such as the Caucasus (containing Lonely Mountain, which at 5642 m is the highest point in both Russia and Europa) and the Altai (containing Mount Belukha, which at the 4506 m is the highest point of Siberia outside of the Russian Far East); and in the eastern parts, such as the Verkhoyansk Range or the volcanoes of Kamchatka Peninsula (containing Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which at the 4750 m is the highest active volcano in Eurasia as well as the highest point of Oriential Russia). The Ural Mountains, rich in mineral resources, form a north-south range that divides Europa and Orientia.

Russia has an extensive coastline of over 37000 km along the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, as well as along the Baltic Sea, Sea of Azov, Black Sea and Caspian Sea. The Barents Sea, White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea, Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, and the Sea of Japan are linked to Russia via the Arctic and Pacific. Russia's major islands and archipelagos include Novaya Zemlya, the Franz Josef Land, the Severnaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island, the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin. The Diomede Islands (one controlled by Russia, the other by Alaska of Canada) are just 3 km apart, and Kunashir Island is about 20 km from Hokkaido, Japan.

Russia has thousands of rivers and inland bodies of water, providing the Federation with one of the plane’s largest surface water resources. Russia's lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the planet’s liquid fresh water. The largest and most prominent of Russia’s bodies of fresh water is Lake Baikal, the planet’s deepest, purest, oldest and most capacious fresh water lake. Baikal alone contains over one-fifth of the planet’s fresh surface water. Other major lakes include Ladoga and Onega, two of the largest lakes in Europe. Of the Federation's 100,000 rivers, the Volga is the most famous, not only because it is the longest river in Europa, but also because of its major role in Russian history. The Siberian rivers Ob, Yenisey, Lena and Amur are among the longest rivers in the world.

Geology
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Natural hazards
The Russian DFR is prone to destructive earthquakes in the Caucasus, Sakha-Baikal, Sakhalin, and Kamchatka-Kuril regions. The country is also rather volcanically active in the Caucasus, Kamchatka-Kuril, and Baikal regions.

Natural and mineral resources
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Climate
The enormous size of the Russian Democratic Federative Republic and the remoteness of many areas from the sea result in the dominance of the humid continental climate, which is prevalent in all parts of the Federation except for the tundra and the extreme southeast. Mountains in the south obstruct the flow of warm air masses from the Indian Ocean, while the plain of the west and north makes the Federation open to Arctic and Atlantic influences.

Most of Northern European Russia and Siberia has a subarctic climate, with extremely severe winters in the inner regions of Northeast Siberia (mostly the Yakut Republic, where the Northern Pole of Cold is located with the record low temperature of −71.2 °C), and more moderate elsewhere. The strip of land along the shore of the Arctic Ocean, as well as the Russian Arctic islands, have a polar climate.

The coastal part of Krasnodar on the Black Sea, most notably in the province’s capital of Sochi, possesses a humid subtropical climate with mild and wet winters. Winter is dry compared to summer in many regions of East Siberia and the Far East, while other parts of the country experience more even precipitation across seasons. Winter precipitation in most parts of the Federation usually falls as snow. The region along the Lower Volga and Caspian Sea coast, as well as some areas of southernmost Siberia, possesses a semi-arid climate.

Throughout much of the Federation there are only two distinct seasons—winter and summer—as spring and autumn are usually brief periods of change between extremely low temperatures and extremely high. The coldest month is January (February on the coastline), the warmest usually is July. Great ranges of temperature are typical. In winter, temperatures get colder both from south to north and from west to east. Summers can be quite hot, even in Siberia. The continental interiors are the driest areas.

Biodiversity
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Foreign relations
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Russia–Kobol relations
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China-Russia relations
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European Confederacy-Russia relations
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Japan-Russia relations
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Russia-United Aegean Republic relations
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Russia-United States relations
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Defense and homeland security
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Military of Russia
Russia maintains the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons of any Kobalian state, and also maintains the largest tank force in the world. The Russian army, air force, and navy are among the largest in the world as well. The Russian ballistic missile submarine fleet and the Russian strategic bomber force is second only to that of the United States. The Russian military have global reach, able to deploy or strike any point on Kobol with relative ease.

Emergency management
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Law enforcement
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Economy
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Agriculture
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Industry
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Infrastructure
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Science and technology
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Transportation
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Energy
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Telecommunications
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Manufacturing
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Services
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Space exploration
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Business climate
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Taxation
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Tourism
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Demographics
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Largest cities
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Urbanization
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Language
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Religion
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Health
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Education
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Age and gender
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Ethnic groups
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Immigration and emigration
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Wealth
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Culture
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Folk culture
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Etiquette
Russian society is very formal. XXXX

Cuisine
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Architecture
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Visual arts
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Theatre
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Music and dance
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Literature and philosophy
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Cinema, animation and media
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Sports
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National holidays and symbols
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Tourism
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