About Russia

Russia, also officially known as the Russian Federation, is a democratic, federal state.  It has rich cultural traditions.

 

Russia covers over 17 million sq.km occupying one third of the Eurasian Continent or 11% of the world land mass.

 

The population of Russia is 143,3 million people (as of  April 1, 2005). 160 enthnic groups live in the Russian Federation.

 

The capital of Russia is Moscow. Adminitratively, the Russian Federation consists of 21 republics, 6 territories, 49 regions, 2 federal cities, 1 autonomous region, 10 autonomous districts, all of which are organized into 7 federal districts.

 

The Russian flag, referred to as a tricolour, has three equal horizontal fields, white on top, blue in the middle and red at the bottom. Its width is two thirds of its length.

 

The Russian state emblem is a two-headed eagle placed on a red heraldic shield. There are three historic crowns of Peter the Great above it (two small ones above the eagle's heads and a bigger one above both of them). The eagle holds a sceptre and an orb. St George defeating the Serpent is in the middle of the shield.

 

Russia's national anthem was composed by A.Alexandrov, the lyrics written by S.Mikhalkov.

 

Russian is the state language of the country.

 

The main national holiday, the Day of Russia, falls on June 12.

 

The current Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted in 1993.

 

Since 1991, the Head of State in the Russian Federation is the President (link http://www.gov.ru), elected on the basis of equal universal suffrage by secret ballot.

 

The President of the Russian Federation (www.kremlin.ru) is Dmitry Medvedev. The official inauguration took place on May 7, 2008.