Legend: 
Definition
Field Listing 
Rank
Order
|
Background: |
Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army
in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the
Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the 300-year old
Romanov Dynasty. The Communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power
soon after and formed the USSR. The brutal rule of Josef STALIN
(1928-53) strengthened Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a
cost of tens of millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society
stagnated in the following decades until General Secretary Mikhail
GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika
(restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his
initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991
splintered the USSR into 15 independent republics. Since then,
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. A determined
guerrilla conflict still plagues Russia in Chechnya.
|
|
Location: |
Northern Asia (that part west of the Urals is
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
water: 79,400 sq km
land: 16,995,800 sq km |
|
Area - comparative: |
approximately 1.8 times the size of the US |
|
Land boundaries: |
total: 19,990 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 3,485 km, Norway 196 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: Gora 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: 7.46%
permanent crops: 0.11%
other: 92.43% (1998 est.) |
|
Irrigated land: |
46,630 sq km (1998 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; spring floods and summer/autumn forest
fires throughout Siberia and parts of European
Russia |
|
Environment - current 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 seacoasts; deforestation;
soil erosion; soil contamination from improper
application of agricultural chemicals; scattered
areas of sometimes intense radioactive contamination;
groundwater contamination from toxic waste; urban
solid waste management; abandoned stocks of obsolete
pesticides |
|
Environment - international agreements: |
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides,
Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, 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, Persistent Organic Pollutants |
|
Geography - note: |
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; Mount Elbrus
is Europe's tallest peak |
|
Population: |
144,526,278 (July 2003 est.) |
|
Age structure: |
0-14 years: 16% (male 11,815,360; female 11,335,715)
15-64 years: 70.4% (male 49,399,322; female 52,367,194)
65 years and over: 13.6% (male 6,394,411; female 13,214,276) (2003 est.) |
|
Median age: |
total: 37.6 years
male: 34.7 years
female: 40.3 years (2002) |
|
Population growth rate: |
-0.3% (2003 est.) |
|
Birth rate: |
10.09 births/1,000 population (2003 est.) |
|
Death rate: |
13.99 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.) |
|
Net migration rate: |
0.91 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 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: 0.48 male(s)/female
total
population: 0.88 male(s)/female (2003 est.) |
|
Infant mortality rate: |
total: 19.51 deaths/1,000 live births
female:17.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
male: 21.53 deaths/1,000 live births |
|
Life expectancy at birth: |
total population: 67.66 years
male: 62.46 years
female: 73.11 years (2003 est.) |
|
Total fertility rate: |
1.33 children born/woman (2003 est.) |
|
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: |
0.9% (2001 est.) |
|
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: |
700,000 (2001 est.) |
|
HIV/AIDS - deaths: |
9,000 (2001 est.) |
|
Nationality: |
noun: Russian(s)
adjective: Russian |
|
Ethnic groups: |
Russian 81.5%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 3%, Chuvash
1.2%, Bashkir 0.9%, Belarusian 0.8%, Moldavian
0.7%, other 8.1% (1989) |
|
Religions: |
Russian Orthodox, Muslim, other |
|
Languages: |
Russian, other |
|
Literacy: |
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.6%
male: 99.7%
female: 99.5% (2003 est.) |
|
Country name: |
conventional long form: Russian Federation
conventional short form: Russia
local long
form: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
former: Russian Empire,
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
local short
form: Rossiya |
|
Government type: |
federation |
|
Capital: |
Moscow |
|
Administrative divisions: |
49 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast), 21 republics*
(respublik, singular - respublika), 10 autonomous
okrugs**(avtonomnykh okrugov, singular - avtonomnyy
okrug), 6 krays*** (krayev, singular - kray),
2 federal cities (singular - gorod)****, 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)*, Kaluzhskaya,
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 (Yakutiya)*, Sakhalinskaya
(Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samarskaya, Sankt-Peterburg
(Saint Petersburg)****, Saratovskaya, Severnaya
Osetiya-Alaniya [North Ossetia] (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*****; note - when 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: 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: |
Russia Day, 12 June (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 Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN
(acting president since 31 December 1999, president since 7 May
2000)
head of government: Premier Mikhail Mikhaylovich
KASYANOV (since 7 May 2000); Deputy Premiers Viktor Borisovich
KHRISTENKO (since 31 May 1999), Aleksey Leonidovich KUDRIN (since 18
May 2000), Aleksey Vasilyevich GORDEYEV (since 20 May 2000), Boris
Sergeyevich ALESHIN (since 24 April 2003), Galina Nikolayevna
KARELOVA (since 24 April 2003), Vladimir Anatolyevich YAKOVLEV
(since 16 June 2003)
cabinet: Ministries of the
Government or "Government" composed of the premier and his deputies,
ministers, and selected other individuals; 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
election results: Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN
elected president; percent of vote - Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN
52.9%, Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV 29.2%, Grigoriy Alekseyevich
YAVLINSKIY 5.8%
elections: president elected by popular
vote for a four-year term; election last held 26 March 2000 (next to
be held March 2004); note - no 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 appointed by the president with
the approval of the Duma |
|
Legislative branch: |
bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye
consists of the Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii
(178 seats; as of July 2000, members appointed
by the top executive and legislative officials
in each of the 89 federal administrative units
- oblasts, krays, republics, autonomous okrugs
and oblasts, and the federal cities of Moscow
and Saint Petersburg; members serve four-year
terms) and the State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya
Duma (450 seats; 225 seats elected by proportional
representation from party lists winning at least
5% of the vote, and 225 seats from single-member
constituencies; members are elected by direct,
popular vote to serve four-year terms)
election results: State Duma - percent
of vote received by parties clearing the 5% threshold entitling them
to a proportional share of the 225 party list seats - KPRF 24.29%,
Unity 23.32%, OVR 13.33%, Union of Rightist Forces 8.52%, LDPR
5.98%, Yabloko 5.93%; seats by party - KPRF 113, Unity 72, OVR 67,
Union of Rightist Forces 29, LDPR 17, Yabloko 21, other 16,
independents 106, repeat election required 8, vacant 1
elections: State Duma - last held 19 December 1999 (next
to be held 14 December 2003) |
|
Judicial branch: |
Constitutional Court; Supreme Court; Superior
Court of Arbitration; judges for all courts are
appointed for life by the Federation Council on
the recommendation of the president |
|
Political parties and leaders: |
Agrarian Party [Mikhail Ivanovich LAPSHIN]; Communist
Party of the Russian Federation or KPRF [Gennadiy
Andreyevich ZYUGANOV]; Fatherland-All Russia or
OVR [Yuriy Mikhaylovich LUZHKOV]; Liberal Democratic
Party of Russia or LDPR [Vladimir Volfovich ZHIRINOVSKIY];
Union of Rightist Forces [Anatoliy Borisovich
CHUBAYS, Yegor Timurovich GAYDAR, Irina Mutsuovna
KHAKAMADA, Boris Yefimovich NEMTSOV]; United Russia
[Boris Vyacheslavovich GRYZLOV]; Yabloko Party
[Grigoriy Alekseyevich YAVLINSKIY]
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 19 December 1999 Duma elections; of these, 36
political organizations actually qualified to run slates of
candidates on the Duma party list ballot, 6 parties cleared the 5%
threshold to win a proportional share of the 225 party seats in the
Duma, 9 other organizations hold seats in the Duma: Bloc of
Nikolayev and Academician Fedorov, Congress of Russian Communities,
Movement in Support of the Army, Our Home Is Russia, Party of
Pensioners, Power to the People, Russian All-People's Union, Russian
Socialist Party, and Spiritual Heritage; primary political blocs
include pro-market democrats - (Yabloko Bloc and Union of Right
Forces), anti-market and/or ultranationalist (Communist Party of the
Russian Federation and Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) |
|
Political pressure groups and leaders: |
NA |
|
International organization participation: |
APEC, ARF (dialogue partner), ASEAN (dialogue
partner), BIS, BSEC, CBSS, CE, CERN (observer),
CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, ESCAP, G- 8, GEF, IAEA,
IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM,
IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer),
MINURSO, MONUC, NAM (guest), NSG, OAS (observer),
OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UN Security Council,
UNAMSIL, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR,
UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMISET, UNMOP, UNMOVIC,
UNOMIG, UNTSO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
WTrO (observer), ZC |
|
Diplomatic representation in the US: |
chief of mission: Ambassador Yuriy Viktorovich USHAKOV
FAX: [1] (202) 298-5735
consulate(s) general:
New York, San Francisco, and Seattle
telephone: [1] (202)
298-5700, 5701, 5704, 5708
chancery: 2650 Wisconsin
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007 |
|
Diplomatic representation from the US: |
chief of mission: Ambassador Alexander VERSHBOW
embassy: Bolshoy Devyatinskiy Pereulok No. 8, 121099
Moscow
mailing address: APO AE 09721
telephone: [7] (095) 728-5000
FAX: [7] (095)
728-5203
consulate(s) general: Saint Petersburg,
Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg |
|
Flag description: |
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue,
and red |
|
Economy - overview: |
A decade after the implosion of the Soviet Union
in December 1991, Russia is still struggling to
establish a modern market economy and achieve
strong economic growth. In contrast to its trading
partners in Central Europe - which were able to
overcome the initial production declines that
accompanied the launch of market reforms within
three to five years - Russia saw its economy contract
for five years, as the executive and legislature
dithered over the implementation of many of the
basic foundations of a market economy. Russia
achieved a slight recovery in 1997, but the government's
stubborn budget deficits and the country's poor
business climate made it vulnerable when the global
financial crisis swept through in 1998. The crisis
culminated in the August depreciation of the ruble,
a debt default by the government, and a sharp
deterioration in living standards for most of
the population. The economy subsequently has rebounded,
growing by an average of more than 6% annually
in 1999-2001 on the back of higher oil prices
and the 60% depreciation of the ruble in 1998.
The ruble's real appreciation back to its 1998
level is making Russian goods exports less competitive
both domestically and abroad. Economic growth
fell to 4% during 2002. These GDP numbers, along
with a renewed government effort to advance lagging
structural reforms, have raised business and investor
confidence over Russia's prospects in its second
decade of transition. Yet serious problems persist.
Russia remains heavily dependent on exports of
commodities, particularly oil, natural gas, metals,
and timber, which account for over 80% of exports,
leaving the country vulnerable to swings in world
prices. Russia's industrial base is increasingly
dilapidated and must be replaced or modernized
if the country is to maintain vigorous economic
growth. Other problems include a weak banking
system, a poor business climate that discourages
both domestic and foreign investors, corruption,
local and regional government intervention in
the courts, and widespread lack of trust in institutions.
|
|
GDP: |
purchasing power parity - $1.35 trillion (2002
est.) |
|
GDP - real growth rate: |
4.2% (2002 est.) |
|
GDP - per capita: |
purchasing power parity - $9,300 (2002 est.) |
|
GDP - composition by sector: |
agriculture: 5.8%
industry: 34.6%
services: 59.6% (2002 est.) |
|
Population below poverty line: |
25% (2002 est.) |
|
Household income or consumption by percentage
share: |
lowest 10%: 5.9%
highest 10%: 47% (2001)
|
|
Distribution of family income - Gini
index: |
39.9 (2001) |
|
Inflation rate (consumer prices): |
15% (2002 est.) |
|
Labor force: |
71.8 million (2002 est.) |
|
Labor force - by occupation: |
agriculture 12.3%, industry 22.7%, services 65%
(2002 est.) |
|
Unemployment rate: |
7.9% plus considerable underemployment (2002)
|
|
Budget: |
revenues: $70 billion
expenditures: $62
billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2002 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: |
3.7% (2002 est.) |
|
Electricity - production: |
846.5 billion kWh (2001) |
|
Electricity - production by source: |
fossil fuel: 64.3%
hydro: 20.5%
other: 0.4% (2001)
nuclear: 14.8% |
|
Electricity - consumption: |
773.08 billion kWh (2001) |
|
Electricity - exports: |
21.16 billion kWh (2001) |
|
Electricity - imports: |
7 billion kWh (2001) |
|
Oil - production: |
7.286 million bbl/day (2001 est.) |
|
Oil - consumption: |
2.595 million bbl/day (2001 est.) |
|
Oil - exports: |
NA (2001) |
|
Oil - imports: |
NA (2001) |
|
Oil - proved reserves: |
51.22 billion bbl (January 2002 est.) |
|
Natural gas - proved reserves: |
47.86 trillion cu m (January 2002 est.) |
|
Agriculture - products: |
grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, vegetables,
fruits; beef, milk |
|
Exports: |
$104.6 billion (2002 est.) |
|
Exports - commodities: |
petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas,
wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and
a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures
|
|
Exports - partners: |
Germany 9.3%, US 8.3%, Italy 7.5%, China 5.6%,
Belarus 5.2%, Ukraine 5.2% (2000 est.) |
|
Imports: |
$60.7 billion (2002 est.) |
|
Imports - commodities: |
machinery and equipment, consumer goods, medicines,
meat, sugar, semifinished metal products |
|
Imports - partners: |
Germany 13.2%, Belarus 9.6%, Ukraine 9.3%, US
7.6%, Kazakhstan 4.8%, Italy 4.1% (2000) |
|
Debt - external: |
$153.5 billion (yearend 2002) |
|
Economic aid - recipient: |
in FY01 from US, $979 million (including $750 million in non-proliferation subsidies); in 2001 from EU, $200 million |
|
Currency: |
Russian ruble (RUR) |
|
Currency code: |
RUR |
|
Exchange rates: |
Russian rubles per US dollar - 31.2651 (2002),
29.1685 (2001), 28.1292 (2000), 24.6199 (1999),
9.7051 (1998)
note: the
post-1 January 1998 ruble is equal to 1,000 of the pre-1 January
1998 rubles |
|
Fiscal year: |
calendar year |
|
Telephones - main lines in use: |
30 million (1998) |
|
Telephones - mobile cellular: |
19 million (January 2003) |
|
Telephone system: |
general assessment: the telephone system has undergone
significant changes in the 1990s; 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; however, a large demand for main line service
remains unsatisfied
domestic: cross-country digital trunk
lines run from Saint 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 systems |
|
Radio broadcast stations: |
AM 420, FM 447, shortwave 56 (1998) |
|
Television broadcast stations: |
7,306 (1998) |
|
Internet country code: |
.ru; Russia also has responsibility for a legacy
domain ".su" that was allocated to the Soviet
Union, its legal status and ownership are contested
by the Russian Government, ICANN, and several
Russian commercial entities |
|
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): |
300 (June 2000) |
|
Internet users: |
18 million (2002) |
|
Railways: |
total: 87,157 km
broad gauge: 86,200 km
1.520-m gauge (40,300 km electrified)
narrow gauge: 957
km 1.067-m gauge (on Sakhalin Island)
note:: an
additional 30,000 km of non-common carrrier lines serve industries
(2002) |
|
Highways: |
total: 952,000 km
paved: 752,000 km (including
about 336,000 km of conventionally paved roads, and about 416,000 km
of roads with all-weather gravel surfaces)
unpaved:
200,000 km (these roads are made of unstabilized earth and are
difficult to negotiate in wet weather) (1998) |
|
Waterways: |
95,900 km (total routes in general use)
note: 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) |
|
Pipelines: |
crude oil 46,000 km; petroleum products 15,000
km; natural gas 152,000 km (2002) |
|
Ports and harbors: |
Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan',
De-Kastri, Indigirskiy, Kaliningrad, Kandalaksha,
Kazan', Khabarovsk, Kholmsk, Krasnoyarsk, Lazarev,
Mago, Mezen', Moscow, Murmansk, Nakhodka, Nevel'sk,
Novorossiysk, Onega, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy,
Rostov, Shakhtersk, Saint Petersburg, Sochi, Taganrog,
Tuapse, Uglegorsk, Vanino, Vladivostok, Volgograd,
Vostochnyy, Vyborg |
|
Merchant marine: |
total: 933 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 4,495,122
GRT/5,490,103 DWT
ships by type: barge carrier 1, bulk
22, cargo 553, chemical tanker 12, combination bulk 21, combination
ore/oil 36, container 30, multi-functional large-load carrier 1,
passenger 38, passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 167, refrigerated
cargo 21, roll on/roll off 20, short-sea passenger 7, specialized
tanker 1
note: includes some foreign-owned ships
registered here as a flag of convenience: Belize 1, Cambodia 1,
Cyprus 9, Denmark 1, Estonia 4, Greece 3, Honduras 1, Latvia 4,
Lithuania 3, Moldova 3, Netherlands 1, South Korea 1, Turkey 18,
Turkmenistan 2, Ukraine 10, UK 5, US 1 (2002 est.) |
|
Airports: |
2,743 (2002) |
|
Airports - with paved runways: |
total: 471
over 3,047 m: 56
2,438 to
3,047 m: 178
1,524 to 2,437 m: 76
914 to 1,523
m: 69
under 914 m: 92 (2002) |
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Airports - with unpaved runways: |
total: 2,272
over 3,047 m: 28
2,438 to
3,047 m: 118
1,524 to 2,437 m: 204
914 to
1,523 m: 324
under 914 m: 1,598 (2002)
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Disputes - international: |
China continues to seek a mutually acceptable
solution to the disputed alluvial islands at the
confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers and a
small island on the Argun River as part of the
2001 Treaty of Good Neighborliness, Friendship,
and Cooperation; the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri,
Shikotan, and the Habomai group identified by
the Russians as the "Southern Kurils" and by Japan
as the "Northern Territories" occupied by the
Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia,
claimed by Japan; boundary with Georgia has been
largely delimited but not demarcated with several
small, strategic segments remaining in dispute
and OSCE observers monitoring volatile areas such
as the Pankisi Gorge in the Akhmeti region and
the Argun Gorge in Abkhazia; equidistant seabed
treaties have been signed with Azerbaijan and
Kazakhstan in the Caspian Sea but no resolution
on dividing the water column among any of the
littoral states; Russia and Norway dispute their
maritime limits in the Barents Sea and Russia's
fishing rights beyond Svalbard's territorial limits
within the Svalbard Treaty zone; Russia continues
to reject signing and ratifying the joint 1996
technical border agreement with Estonia; the Russian
Parliament refuses to consider ratification of
the boundary treaties with Estonia and Latvia,
but in May 2003, ratified land and maritime boundary
treaty with Lithuania, which ratified the 1997
treaty in 1999, legalizing limits of former Soviet
republic borders; discussions are still ongoing
among Russia, Lithuania and the EU concerning
a simplified transit document for residents of
the Kaliningrad coastal exclave to transit through
Lithuania to Russia; land delimitation with Ukraine
is ratified, but maritime regime of the Sea of
Azov and Kerch Strait is unresolved; delimitation
with Kazakhstan is scheduled for completion in
2003; Russian Duma has not yet ratified 1990 Maritime
Boundary Agreement with the US in the Bering Sea
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Illicit drugs: |
limited cultivation of illicit cannabis and opium
poppy and producer of methamphetamine, mostly
for domestic consumption; government has active
illicit crop eradication program; used as transshipment
point for Asian opiates, cannabis, and Latin American
cocaine bound for growing domestic markets, to
a lesser extent Western and Central Europe, and
occasionally to the US; major source of heroin
precursor chemicals; corruption and organized
crime are key concerns; heroin increasingly popular
in domestic market |
This page was last updated on 1 August,
2003
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