Russia

The Ural Mountains run roughly north-south through Russia and form the traditional geographic boundary between Europe and Asia. They are relatively modest in height — the highest peak, Narodnaya, reaches only 1,895 meters — but they are historically and symbolically enormous. Everything west of the Urals is considered European Russia; everything east is Siberia and Asia.

Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia is the world's deepest lake at 1,642 meters and holds approximately 20% of all liquid fresh surface water on Earth — more than all five North American Great Lakes combined. Russia also contains some of the world's longest rivers: the Ob, Lena, and Yenisei all flow north through Siberia to the Arctic Ocean, draining a continent-sized watershed.

Russia's Siberian taiga — a vast belt of spruce, fir, and pine — is the world's largest terrestrial biome, covering roughly 5.5 million square kilometers. North of the taiga lies frozen tundra; south of it, open grassland steppe. The entire region sits atop permafrost — permanently frozen ground that can extend hundreds of meters deep — which is now thawing as the climate warms.

The Volga — Europe's longest river at 3,530 kilometers — flows south through Russia's western heartland to the landlocked Caspian Sea. It has been the central artery of Russian civilization for centuries, carrying trade, supporting agriculture, and powering industries. Most of Russia's population, major cities, and economic activity cluster in this European portion west of the Urals.

Russia has about 144 million people — but roughly 80% of them live west of the Ural Mountains in European Russia, an area covering only about a quarter of the country's territory. Siberia, which is larger than Canada, has fewer than 40 million people — roughly one person per square mile. Moscow, with 12+ million, is Europe's largest city by population.

Russian Orthodox Christianity has been central to Russian identity for over a thousand years — since Prince Vladimir of Kyiv adopted it in 988. Its golden-domed churches, elaborate liturgy, and calendar of fasting and feasting have shaped art, music, architecture, and daily life for centuries. After suppression during the Soviet era, the Church has reasserted its role as a cultural and national institution.

Russian (written in Cyrillic script) is the official language and serves as the common tongue across a country that officially recognizes over 190 ethnic groups — including Tatars, Bashkirs, Chechens, Buryats, Yakuts, and dozens more. Many of these groups have distinct languages, traditions, and histories stretching back long before Russia absorbed their territories.

Russia has made extraordinary contributions to world culture. Its literary tradition — Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Pushkin — is among the greatest in any language. Russian composers Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev shaped classical music globally. The Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and Mariinsky in St. Petersburg remain among the world's most prestigious companies.

Russia sits atop some of the world's largest reserves of oil and natural gas. Fossil fuels account for roughly 40–60% of government revenue depending on prices, and Russia was one of the world's top two oil exporters before 2022. This dependence on resource exports has made the economy highly sensitive to global commodity prices and vulnerable to external pressure.

After Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western nations imposed sweeping economic sanctions — cutting off access to global financial systems, restricting technology imports, and targeting Russian oligarchs and state companies. Many major Western corporations exited Russia, reshaping its economy and pushing it toward greater reliance on China and other non-Western partners.

Russia's constitution describes it as a federal semi-presidential republic — with an elected president, prime minister, and parliament (the State Duma). In practice, power has become increasingly centralized under President Vladimir Putin since 2000. Independent media, opposition parties, and civil society have been systematically constrained, and constitutional changes in 2020 extended Putin's potential rule through 2036.

Russia holds a permanent seat on the UN Security Council — giving it veto power over major international decisions — and maintains the world's largest nuclear arsenal. Its military is one of the most powerful by hardware count. Russia's geography, spanning two continents and bordering 14 countries, has long made it a central player in global power dynamics, from the Cold War to the present.