Russia

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world, spanning eleven time zones and sharing land borders with fourteen countries. With a population of over 140 million, Russia is the most populous country in Europe and the ninth-most populous in the world. It is a highly urbanised country, with sixteen of its urban areas having more than 1 million inhabitants. Moscow, the most populous metropolitan area in Europe, is the capital and largest city of Russia, while Saint Petersburg is its second-largest city and a major cultural centre. Human settlement on modern Russian territory dates back to the Lower Paleolithic. The emergence of the East Slavs as a prominent group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD led to the creation of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century. Rus' adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988. Following its disintegration, the Grand Principality of Moscow began the process of unifying Russian lands in the late 13th century, leading to the formation of the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. By the early 18th century, the Tsardom had expanded vastly through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers. It was proclaimed as the Russian Empire in 1721, which remains the third-largest in history. The Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the abolition of monarchic rule and the creation of the first constitutionally socialist state in the world. Following the Russian Civil War, Russia established the Soviet Union as its largest and principal constituent. Amidst rapid industrialisation in the 1930s, the Soviet Union saw deaths of millions under the totalitarianism of Joseph Stalin. It played a decisive role for the Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union emerged as a superpower and competed with the United States for ideological dominance and international influence. The 20th-century Soviet era saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements, including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space. In 1991, Soviet Russia emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the independent Russian Federation. Following a constitutional crisis in 1993, the Soviet government structure was abolished and a new constitution was adopted, which established a federal semi-presidential system. Since the turn of the century, the political system of Russia has been dominated by Vladimir Putin, under whose leadership it has experienced democratic backsliding and has been transformed into an authoritarian regime. Post-Soviet Russia has been militarily involved in numerous conflicts, including its war with Georgia in 2008 and its war with Ukraine since 2014. The latter has involved the internationally unrecognised annexation and occupation of Ukrainian territories, including that of Crimea in 2014 and four other regions in 2022, during an ongoing war. Russia is generally considered a great power and wields significant regional influence in Europe, possessing the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and having the third-highest military expenditure in the world. Its advanced economy ranks among the largest in the world, relying on its vast mineral and energy resources, mainly oil and natural gas. Russia continues to rank very low in measurements of democracy, human rights and media freedom, while having high levels of corruption. As the successor state of the Soviet Union, it retains its seat as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and is a member state of several international organisations. Russia is also home to 32 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.