Russia in brief

Size 17,075,400 square kilometers (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world with more than an eighth of the Earth’s land area
Population approx 142 million people
Extending across northern Asia and 40% of Europe, it also spans 9 time zones
Russia contains the world's largest mineral and energy resources
It has the world's largest forest reserves
It's lakes hold about one-quarter of the world's unfrozen fresh water

Water resources
Russia has thousands of rivers and inland lakes, making it one of the world's largest surface water resources
The most famous of Russia's lakes of fresh water is Lake Baikal. It's the world's deepest, purest and contains over one fifth of the world's fresh surface water
Other major Russian lakes include Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega
Russia has about 100,000 rivers. The Volga is the longest river in Europe. Russia has a wide natural resource base unmatched by any other country, including major deposits of petroleum, natural gas, coal, timber and mineral resources

Other resources
Russia has a natural resource base which include large deposits of petroleum, natural gas, coal, timber and mineral

Climate
Most of Russia has only two distinct seasons — winter and summer; spring and autumn are normally short periods of change between low and high temperatures
The coldest month is usually January (except by the sea - February), the warmest month is usually July
Great variations of temperature are typical
In winter, temperatures get colder the more north you go and also the more east you go
Summers can be quite hot and humid, even in Siberia
A small area of Black Sea coast near Sochi is considered to have a subtropical climate
The Russian interiors are the driest areas

Transformation
From 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) attempting to modernize the country
The USSR economy was the second largest in the world before the Soviet collapse
During the last years, there were severe shortages of goods in grocery stores, large budget deficits and extremely high growth in money supply which all resulted in high inflation
In August 1991, an unsuccessful military coup against Gorbachev with the aim of preserving the Soviet Union, instead led to the collapse of the Soviet Union
In Russia, Boris Yeltsin came to power and declared the end of Communist rule
The USSR split into 15 independent republics and the USSR was officially dissolved in December 1991
Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia in June 1991, the first direct presidential election in Russian history

Economy
After the turn of the century, rising oil prices, increased foreign investment, higher domestic consumption and greater political stability have contributed to the economic growth in Russia. The country ended 2007 with its ninth consecutive year of substantial growth with an annual average of 7% annually after the financial crisis of 1998
In 2007, Russia's GDP was $2.076 trillion, the 7th highest in the world. Growth was mainly from non-traded services and goods for the domestic market, not oil or mineral extraction and exports
About 12.5% of Russians remained below the official poverty line in 2007 which is down from 40% in 1998 at the height of the post-Soviet collapse
The average salary in Russia was $540 per month in August 2007, up from $65 per month in August 1999