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Russia
Russia is a country in northern Eurasia.It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders withNorway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both with Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the U.S. state of Alaska across theBering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth"s inhabited land area. Russia is also the world"s ninth most populous nation with 143 million people as of 2012.Extending across the whole of northern Asia, Russia spans nine time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world"s largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world"s largest forest reserves. Its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world"s liquid fresh water, 20% in Lake Baikalalone.
The nation"s history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire,[16] beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that definedRussian 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 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become theRussian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland in Europe to Alaska in North America.
Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Soviet Union, the world"s first constitutionally socialist state and a recognized superpower,which played a decisive role in the Allied victory inWorld War II.The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world"sfirst human spaceflight. The Russian Federation became the successor state of the Russian SFSR following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and is recognized as the continuing legal personality of the All-Union state.
The Russian economy is the world"s eighth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity, with the 3rd largestnominal military budget. Russia is one of the world"s fastest growing major economies. It is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia is a great power and a permanent member of theUnited Nations Security Council, a member of the G8, G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Eurasian Economic Community, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and is the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The name Russia is derived from Rus, a medieval state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this proper name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants "Русская Земля" (russkaya zemlya) which could be translated as "Russian Land" or "Land of Rus"". In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus" by modern historiography. The name Rus itself comes from Rus people, a group of Varangians (possibly Swedish Vikings) who founded the state of Rus (Русь).
An old Latin version of the name Rus" was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus" that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия (Rossiya), comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus", Ρωσσu03afα Rossía—spelt Ρωσu03afα (Rosía pronounced [rou02c8sia]) inModern Greek.
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