Biography of country russia facts
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Facts about Russia
Prepare for one seriously big trip round one seriously cool country with our fab facts about Russia…
Official Name: Russian Federation
Form of Government: Federation
Capital: Moscow
Population: 144, 125, 000
Official Language: Russian
Money: Ruble
Area: 17, 075, 200 square kilometres
Major Mountain ranges: Ural, Altay
Major Rivers: Amur, Irtysh, Lena, Ob, Volga, Yenisey
As the world’s largest country, Russia occupies one-tenth of all the land on Earth. It spans 11 time zones across two continents (Europe and Asia) and has shores on three oceans (the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Ocean).
The Russian landscape varies from sandy and frozen deserts, tall mountains to giant marshes. Much of Russia is made up of rolling, treeless plains called “steppes”. The region of Siberia, which occupies three-quarters of Russia, is dominated by sprawling pine forests called “taigas”.
Russia has ar
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Russia country profile
2002 - Chechen militants take over 700 people hostage in a Moscow theatre, demanding the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. Russian forces pump sleeping gas into the building and storm it. Over 100 civilian hostages die from the effects of the sleeping gas.
2004 - Chechen militants take over 1,100 people, including 770 children hostage in Beslan, North Ossetia, demanding Russian withdrawal from Chechnya. Russian forces storm the school buildings, ending the siege, during which 334 people are killed, including 186 children, as well as 31 of the attackers.
2005 - Putin characterises the collapse of the Soviet Union as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the Twentieth Century".
2006 - Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter who exposed corruption in the Russian army and its conduct in Chechnya, is killed.
2008 - Russo-Georgian War: Tensions between Georgia and Russia escalate into a full-blown military conflict after Geo
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History of Russia
"Russian History" redirects here. For other uses, see Russian History (disambiguation).
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Russian history.
The history of Russia begins with the histories of the East Slavs.[1][2] The traditional start date of specifically Russian history is the establishment of the Rus' state in the north in the year 862, ruled by Varangians.[3][4] In 882, Prince Oleg of Novgorod seized Kiev, uniting the northern and southern lands of the Eastern Slavs under one authority, moving the governance center to Kiev by the end of the 10th century, and maintaining northern and southern parts with significant autonomy from each other. The state adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine, Slavic and Scandinavian cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state due to the Mongol invasions in 12