NOTE: Some of Russia's subdivisions are nested. Thus, Tyumen Oblast includes two autonomous districts, Khantia-Mansia and Yamalia, Krasnoyarsk Krai includes Taymyria and Evenkia, and so forth. Wherever this is the case, the nesting region's area is given with all the nested components included. The same goes for Moscow and Leningrad Oblasts: areas given include the federal cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, respectively.
Subdivisions: 21 autonomous republics and 68 autonomous territories and regions.
Russia is a federation, but the precise distribution of powers between the central government and the regional and local authorities is still evolving.
Russia has acquiesced (despite misgivings by some) in enlargement of NATO by members first of the former Warsaw Pact and most recently by the Baltic states that were forcibly integrated into the Soviet Union.