Geography

Russia occupies 11.5% of the world territory being the largest country in the world. With an area of 17 mln sq. km, it is somewhat smaller than the areas of Canada (9.97 mln sq. km) and Australia (about 7.68 mln sq. km) combined. Russia spreads for ten thousand kilometers from the west the east and covers eleven time zones.

In the north-west, Russia borders Norway and Finland, in the south-west, it shares borders with the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine and Belorussia; former USSR republics Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia lie to the south of the country; finally, Russia is bounded to the Orient by the shores of the Pacific ocean and its land borders with Mongolia and China in the south.

The Ural mountain range (up to 1600 m in the south and 1894 m in the north) is a natural border splitting Russia into European and Asian parts. The former is mainly a plain, with the highlands of Khibiny on Kola Peninsula (1200 m) and the Caucuses mountain ridge. The Elbrus reaching 5642 m, the highest peak of the Caucuses and Russia, is also the heist peak of Europe. East of the Urals, in the south of the country West and East Siberian plateaus rise in Altay (up to 4506 m) and Sayans mountains (up to 3494 m). Along the Far East shore of Russia stretches Kamchatka mountains with the highest acting volcano of Eurasia (Kluchevskaya, 4750 m). In all the mountainous areas, trekking, alpinism, speleo-tourism, white-water rafting, downhill skiing, mountain biking are available.

The greatest rivers of Russia are Lena, Yenissey, Irtysh and Ob’ that flow through Siberia in the Arctic Ocean. Being only the 5th in size in Russia, Volga is the largest river in European terms (3531 m). The two biggest lakes of Europe – Ladoga and Onego – are both situated in Karelia, a Republic in the northwest Russia. Russia’s and the world’s largest in the volume freshwater lake Baikal that contains 1/5 of the total world’s freshwater reserves stretches for 600 km from north to south in Eastern Siberia. Cruising, fishing, rafting, kayaking, boating and sailing are practiced on the rivers and lakes.

Forests of the Caucasus, taiga of Siberia and the Far East preserve pristine nature and have a rich wildlife. As opposed to many European countries, when traveling across Russia one can see no people. That is where nature travel is best.

With a population of 145 mln people and a land area of 17 075 000 sq km, Russia is one of the least populated countries in the world. The overwhelming majority of the population is concentrated in the 13 biggest cities of Russia - Moscow (more than 9 mln people), St. Petersburg (4.7 mln people), Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Omsk, Tcheliabinsk, Kazan, Perm, Ufa, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd (each having more than 1 mln inhabitants). The areas off the cities largely remain uninhabited and wild.