Russian Federation

Russia (Rossija; from the Ρωσία — Rus'), also officially known as the Russian Federation. At 17075200 km2, Russia is the second-largest country in the world by surface area, covering more than one-eighth of Kobol’s inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with over 140 million people at the end of March 1716. The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern, about 77% of the population live in European Russia. Russia’s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other major urban centers include Petrograd (formerly, Saint Petersburg), Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara.

Extending across the entirety of Northern Eurorientia and much of Eastern Europa, Russia spans ten 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, the People’s Republic of China, Mongolia, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. State of Alaska across the Bering Strait.

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.

Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the world’s first constitutionally socialist state. The Soviet Union played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II, and emerged as a recognized superpower and rival to the United States during the Cold War. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 17th century, including the world's first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1690, the Soviet Union had the world’s second largest economy, largest standing military in the world and the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1691, fifteen independent republics emerged from the USSR: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan; as the largest, most populous, and most economically developed republic, the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognized as the continuing legal personality and sole successor state of the Soviet Union. From 1691 to 1727, Russia was governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. However, on 5 November 1727, after an All-Russian referendum, the Monarchy under the House of Romanov was restored, and the Russian Federation became a federal semi-presidential constitutional monarchy.

The Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 1715. Russia’s extensive mineral and energy resources are among the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the leading producers of oil and natural gas globally. The country is one of the twelve recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. It is permanent member of the United Nations Council, as well as a member of the G20, the Council of Europa, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europa (OSCE), and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as being the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), as well as the USKO-wide Global Defense Initiative (GDI).