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Country Guide > Europe > Russian Federation | |
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General Information Area 17,075,400 sq km (6,592,850 sq miles).
Population 145,164,000 (official estimate 2002). Population Density 8.5 per sq km. Capital Moscow. Population: 10,101,500 (2002). Geography The Russian Federation covers almost twice the area of the USA, and reaches from Moscow in the west over the Urals and the vast Siberian plains to the Sea of Okhotsk in the east. The border between European Russia and Siberia (Asia) is formed by the Ural Mountains, the Ural River and the Manych Depression. European Russia extends from the North Polar Sea across the Central Russian Uplands to the Black Sea, the Northern Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. Siberia stretches from the West Siberian Plain across the Central Siberian Plateau between Yenisey and Lena, including the Sayan, Yablonovy and Stanovoy ranges in the south to the East Siberian mountains between Lena and the Pacific coast, including the Chukotskiy and Kamchatka peninsulas. Population figures The following republics are part of the Russian Federation. Population figures were drawn up in 2002.
Note *Until 1992, the territories of the Republic of Chechnya and the Ingush Republic were combined in the Chechen-Ingush autonomous republic (area 19,300 sq km). Government Republic since 1991. Head of Government: President Vladimir Putin since 2000. Language Russian. English, French or German are spoken by some people. Religion Mainly Christian with the Russian Orthodox Church being the largest Christian community. Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish minorities also exist. TIME The Russian Federation is divided into 11 time zones. Summer time is + 1 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October. Kaliningrad: GMT + 2. Moscow, St Petersburg, Astrakhan: GMT + 3. Izhevsk and Samara: GMT + 4. Perm – Nizhnevartovsk: GMT + 5. Omsk and Novosibirsk: GMT + 6. Norilsk, Kyzyl: GMT + 7. Bratsk – Ulan Ude: GMT + 8. Chita, Yakutsk: GMT + 9. Khabarovsk, Vladivostok: GMT + 10. Magadan, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk: GMT + 11. Petropavlosk: GMT + 12. Electricity 220 volts AC, 50Hz. Communications Telephone IDD is available. Country code: 7. When dialling the Russian Federation from abroad, the 0 of the area code must not be omitted. Outgoing international code: 810. Some Moscow hotels have telephone booths with IDD. For long-distance calls within the CIS, dial 8 then wait for the dial tone before proceeding with the call. Collect calls, calls placed using credit cards and calls from direct dial telephones in hotels can be extremely expensive. International calls can be made from phones in the street and phonecards are available from many shops and kiosks in the street. The emergency services can be reached as follows: fire – 01; police – 02; ambulance – 03. For enquiries regarding Moscow private telephone numbers, dial 09; for businesses, 927 0009. For national directory enquiries regarding the Russian Federation and the CIS, dial 927 0009. Mobile telephone GSM 900/1800 networks. Network operators include KB Impuls (website: www.beelinegsm.ru) and Mobile Telesystems (website: www.mts.ru). All major cities are covered by at least one operator. Handsets can be hired from some companies. Fax Services are available in numerous business centres and hotels, although the latter option is more expensive. Internet ISPs include Beeonline (website: www.beeonline.ru) and Russiaonline (website: www.online.ru). Public access is available in hotels in larger cities and in Internet cafes. Telegram These may be sent from hotels. Post Airmail to Western Europe takes over 10 days. There are postboxes and post offices in every hotel. Poste Restante facilities are available at the larger hotels. Inland surface mail is often slow. Post office hours: 0900-1900. Press The main dailies in the Russian Federation are Izvestiya and Komsomolskaya Pravda, both published in Moscow. Newspapers and magazines are published in some 25 languages. Multilingual editions of the Moscow News are available weekly. The Moscow Times and St Petersburg Times are published in English. There is also a daily Internet newspaper, Russia Today (website: www.russiatoday.com). Radio BBC World Service (website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice) and Voice of America (website: www.voa.gov) can be received. From time to time the frequencies change and the most up-to-date can be found online. |
