Russia

ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast

broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia; uplands and mountains along southern border regions

North Asia bordering the Arctic Ocean, extending from Eastern Europe (the portion west of the Urals) to the North Pacific Ocean

37,653 km

43,000 sq km (2012)

Angara-Lena Basin, Pechora Basin, North Caucasus Basin, East European Aquifer System, West Siberian Basin, Tunguss Basin, Yakut Basin

Asia

permafrost over much of Siberia is a major impediment to development; volcanic activity in the Kuril Islands; volcanoes and earthquakes on the Kamchatka Peninsula; spring floods and summer/autumn forest fires in Siberia and parts of European Russia volcanism: Kamchatka Peninsula is home to 29 historically active volcanoes, with dozens more in the Kuril Islands; Kliuchevskoi (4,835 m) is Kamchatka's most active volcano; Avachinsky and Koryaksky volcanoes, which pose a threat to the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, have been deemed Decade Volcanoes by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, worthy of study due to their explosive history and close proximity to human populations; other notable historically active volcanoes include Bezymianny, Chikurachki, Ebeko, Gorely, Grozny, Karymsky, Ketoi, Kronotsky, Ksudach, Medvezhia, Mutnovsky, Sarychev Peak, Shiveluch, Tiatia, Tolbachik, and Zheltovsky; see note 2 under "Geography - note"

note 1: largest country in the world in terms of area; despite its size, much of the country lacks the soil and climate (either too cold or too dry) for agriculture note 2: Russia's far east, particularly the Kamchatka Peninsula, lies along the Ring of Fire, which is a belt bordering the Pacific Ocean that contains about 75% of the world's volcanoes and up to 90% of the world's earthquakes note 3: Mount El'brus is Europe's tallest peak; Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, is estimated to hold one fifth of the world's fresh surface water note 4: Kaliningrad oblast is an exclave annexed from Germany after World War II; its capital city of Kaliningrad -- formerly Koenigsberg -- is the only Baltic port in Russia that remains ice-free in the winter

wide natural-resource base including major deposits of oil, natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, bauxite, reserves of rare earth elements, timber

note: formidable obstacles of climate, terrain, and distance hinder exploitation of natural resources

approximately 1.8 times the size of the US

60 00 N, 100 00 E

population is heavily concentrated in the westernmost fifth of the country, extending from the Baltic Sea south to the Caspian Sea, and eastward parallel to the Kazakh border; elsewhere, sizeable population pockets are isolated and generally found in the south

Yenisey-Angara - 5,539 km; Ob-Irtysh - 5,410 km; Amur river mouth (shared with China [s] and Mongolia) - 4,444 km; Lena - 4,400 km; Volga - 3,645 km; Kolyma - 2,513 km; Ural river source (shared with Kazakhstan [m]) - 2,428 km; Dnepr (Dnieper) river source (shared with Belarus and Ukraine [m]) - 2,287 km; Don - 1,870 km; Pechora - 1,809 km note: [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth