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Administrative divisions 46 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast), 21 republics (respublik, singular - respublika), 4 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnykh okrugov, singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 9 krays (krayev, singular - kray), 2 federal cities (goroda, singular - gorod), and 1 autonomous oblast (avtonomnaya oblast') oblasts: Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl' republics: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan (Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas), Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk), Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordoviya (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Sakha [Yakutiya] (Yakutsk), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk) autonomous okrugs: Chukotka (Anadyr'), Khanty-Mansi (Khanty-Mansiysk), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard) krays: Altay (Barnaul), Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Perm', Primorskiy (Vladivostok), Stavropol', Zabaykal'skiy (Chita) federal cities: Moscow (Moskva), Saint Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg) autonomous oblast: Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan) note: administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses)
Administrative divisions > A note administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses)
Administrative divisions > Note administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses)
Ambassadors from Finland > Current Finnish Ambassadors > Ambassador	Harry Helenius
Ambassadors from Israel > Current Israeli Ambassadors > Israeli Ambassador	Anna Azari
Capital city	Moscow
Capital city > Daylight saving time +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October
Capital city > Geographic coordinates	55 45 N, 37 35 E
Capital city > Name	Moscow
Capital city > Note Russia is divided into 11 time zones
Capital city > Time difference UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Constitution	adopted 12 December 1993
Copyright > Reference	Art. 2,
Corruption	2.4		[129th of 160]
countries' copyright length > Usual term of copyright protection 50 pma (death before 1953); 70 pma starting July 28, 2004
date of transition to republican system of government > Republic since	March 15, 1917
Diplomatic representation from the US > Chief of mission	Ambassador John R. BEYRLE
Diplomatic representation from the US > Consulate(s) general Saint Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg
Diplomatic representation from the US > Embassy Bolshoy Deviatinskiy Pereulok No. 8, 121099 Moscow
Diplomatic representation from the US > FAX	[7] (495) 728-5090
Diplomatic representation from the US > Mailing address	PSC-77, APO AE 09721
Diplomatic representation from the US > Telephone	[7] (495) 728-5000
Diplomatic representation in the US > Chancery 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
Diplomatic representation in the US > Chief of mission Ambassador Yuriy Viktorovich USHAKOV
Diplomatic representation in the US > Consulate(s) general Houston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle
Diplomatic representation in the US > FAX	[1] (202) 298-5735
Diplomatic representation in the US > Telephone [1] (202) 298-5700, 5701, 5704, 5708
embassies and high commissions in Ottawa > Address	285 Charlotte
embassies and high commissions in Ottawa > Neighbourhood	Sandy Hill
Espionage organizations and agencies Federal Security Service, Foreign Intelligence Service, Main Intelligence Directorate
Executive branch > A note there is also a Presidential Administration (PA) that provides staff and policy support to the president, drafts presidential decrees, and coordinates policy among government agencies; a Security Council also reports directly to the president
Executive branch > Cabinet Ministries of the Government or "Government" composed of the premier and his deputies, ministers, and selected other individuals; all are appointed by the president
Executive branch > Chief of state President Dmitriy Anatolyevich MEDVEDEV (since 7 May 2008)
Executive branch > Election results Dmitriy MEDVEDEV elected president; percent of vote - Dmitry MEDVEDEV 70.2%, Gennady ZYUGANOV 17.7%, Vladimir ZHIRINOVSKY 9.4%, Andrey BOGDONOV 1.3%
Executive branch > Elections president elected by popular vote for a four-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 2 March 2008 (next to be held in March 2012); note - no vice president; if the president dies in office, cannot exercise his powers because of ill health, is impeached, or resigns, the premier serves as acting president until a new presidential election is held, which must be within three months; premier appointed by the president with the approval of the Duma
Executive branch > Head of government Premier Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN (since 8 May 2008); First Deputy Premiers Igor Ivanovich SHUVALOV and Viktor Alekseyevich ZUBKOV (since 12 May 2008); Deputy Premiers Sergey Borisovich IVANOV (since 12 May 2008), Dmitriy Nikolayevich KOZAK (since 14 October 2008), Aleksey Leonidovich KUDRIN (since 24 September 2007), Igor Ivanovich SECHIN (since 12 May 2008), Sergey Semenovich SOBYANIN (since 12 May 2008), Aleksandr Dmitriyevich ZHUKOV (since 9 March 2004), and Dmitry Nikolayevich KOZAK (since 14 October 2008)
Executive branch > Note there is also a Presidential Administration (PA) that provides staff and policy support to the president, drafts presidential decrees, and coordinates policy among government agencies; a Security Council also reports directly to the president
Federal republic > Contemporary > Style	Federation
Flag description three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red
Flag modification	26		[40th of 197]
foreign consulates in Edinburgh, Scotland > Consulate Address	58 Melville Street
Foreign relations > Croatia > Date of Establishment	May 25, 1992
General government final consumption expenditure > annual % growth	1.8 %		[74th of 147]
General government final consumption expenditure > constant 2000 US$	42,376,490,000 constant 2000 US$		[15th of 145]
General government final consumption expenditure > constant 2000 US$ (per capita)	296.104 constant 2000 US$ per c		[54th of 146]
General government final consumption expenditure > constant LCU	1192051000000
General government final consumption expenditure > current LCU	3558800000000
General government final consumption expenditure > current US$	125,841,600,000 $		[9th of 169]
General government final consumption expenditure > current US$ (per $ GDP)	0.165 $ per $1 of GDP		[58th of 184]
General government final consumption expenditure > current US$ (per capita)	879.313 $ per capita		[41st of 184]
Government type	federation
Heads of Missions from the United Kingdom	Anthony Brenton
Heads of Missions from the United Kingdom > Resident Heads of Missions > Type	Embassy
Independence 24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)
Independence Day > Date	June 12
International organization participation APEC, Arctic Council, ARF, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIS, BSEC, CBSS, CE, CERN (observer), CIS, CSTO, EAEC, EAPC, EBRD, G-8, GCTU, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM (guest), NSG, OAS (observer), OIC (observer), OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNTSO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer), ZC
Judicial branch Constitutional Court; Supreme Court; Supreme Arbitration Court; judges for all courts are appointed for life by the Federation Council on the recommendation of the president
Key ministers > Agriculture	Aleksei Gordeyev
Key ministers > Defence	Sergei Ivanov
Key ministers > Finance	Aleksei Kudrin
Key ministers > Foreign affairs	Sergei Lavrov
Key ministers > Justice Yuri Chaika
Key ministers > Transport Igor Levitin
Legal origin	Socialist
Legal system based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Legislative branch bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye consists of an upper house, the Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (168 seats; as of July 2000, members appointed by the top executive and legislative officials in each of the 84 federal administrative units - oblasts, krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the federal cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg; to serve four-year terms) and a lower house, the State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats; as of 2007, all members elected by proportional representation from party lists winning at least 7% of the vote; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
Legislative branch > Election results State Duma - United Russia 64.3%, CPRF 11.5%, LDPR 8.1%, Just Russia 7.7%, other 8.4%; total seats by party - United Russia 315, CPRF 57, LDPR 40, Just Russia 38
Legislative branch > Elections State Duma - last held 2 December 2007 (next to be held in December 2011)
Management time dealing with officials > % of management time	6.34 %		[8th of 38]
National holiday	Russia Day, 12 June
Parliamentary seats > Female	10%		[67th of 143]
Policy uncertainty > % of managers surveyed ranking this as a major business constraint	25.84 %		[14th of 38]
Political parties and leaders Communist Party of the Russian Federation or CPRF [Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV]; Just Russia [Sergey MIRONOV]; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia or LDPR [Vladimir Volfovich ZHIRINOVSKIY]; Patriots of Russia [Gennadiy SEMIGIN]; People's Union [Sergey BABURIN]; Right Cause [Leonid Yakovlevich GOZMAN, Boris Yuriyevich TITOV, and Georgiy Georgiyevich BOVT] (registration pending; formed from merger of Union of Right Forces, Democratic Party of Russia, and Civic Force); United Russia [Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN]; Yabloko Party [Sergey Sergeyevich MITROKHIN]
Political parties and leaders > A note some 150 political parties, blocs, and movements registered with the Justice Ministry as of the 19 December 1998 deadline to be eligible to participate in the 19 December 1999 Duma elections; of these, 36 political organizations actually qualified to run slates of candidates on the Duma party list ballot, 6 parties cleared the 5% threshold to win a proportional share of the 225 party seats in the Duma, 9 other organizations hold seats in the Duma: Bloc of Nikolayev and Academician Fedorov, Congress of Russian Communities, Movement in Support of the Army, Our Home Is Russia, Party of Pensioners, Power to the People, Russian All-People's Union, Russian Socialist Party, and Spiritual Heritage; primary political blocs include pro-market democrats - (Yabloko Bloc and Union of Right Forces), anti-market and/or ultranationalist (Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Liberal Democratic Party of Russia)
Political pressure groups and leaders Levada Center (conducts polls); Memorial (human rights group; Movement Against Illegal Migration; Pamjat (preservation of historical monuments and recording of history); Russian Orthodox Church; Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
Political pressure groups and leaders > Other ecology groups; human rights groups; nationalist pragmatists (no foreign influence over Central Eurasia); neo-Eurasianists (against Western influence for the area); religious groups; westernizers (lean towards the West)
Post-Soviet states > Political problems > Government and Tax > Average	53.92		[8th of 15]
Prime minister	Mikhail Fradkov
Procedures to build a warehouse > number	22		[29th of 168]
Procedures to build a warehouse > number (per capita)	0.154 per 1 million people		[158th of 170]
Procedures to enforce a contract > number	31		[90th of 170]
Procedures to enforce a contract > number (per capita)	0.217 per 1 million people		[164th of 171]
Procedures to register property > number	6		[99th of 167]
Procedures to register property > number (per capita)	41.925 per 1 billion people		[159th of 167]
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament > %	9.8 %		[124th of 174]
Secession attempts Chechnya, Abkhazia, South Ossetia
Start-up procedures to register a business > number	7		[127th of 171]
Start-up procedures to register a business > number (per capita)	0.056 per 1 million people		[165th of 171]
Status federal democracy
Suffrage 18 years of age; universal
Time required to build a warehouse > days	531 days		[3rd of 168]
Time required to enforce a contract > days	178 days		[167th of 171]
Time required to register property > days	52 days		[77th of 167]
Time required to start a business > days	28 days		[108th of 171]
Time to prepare and pay taxes > hours	256 hours		[81st of 169]
Time to resolve insolvency > years	3.8 years		[52nd of 151]
Total businesses registered > number	8,946,500		[1st of 71]
Total businesses registered > number (per capita)	61.871 per 1 million people		[24th of 83]
Trademarks, nonresidents	7,088		[10th of 99]
Trademarks, nonresidents (per capita)	0.049 per 1 million people		[43rd of 146]
Trademarks, residents	23,571		[9th of 98]
Trademarks, residents (per capita)	0.164 per 1 million people		[40th of 142]
Transnational Issues > Disputes > International China and Russia have demarcated the once disputed islands at the Amur and Ussuri confluence and in the Argun River in accordance with the 2004 Agreement, ending their centuries-long border disputes; the sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known in Japan as the "Northern Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kurils," occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia, and claimed by Japan, remains the primary sticking point to signing a peace treaty formally ending World War II hostilities; Russia and Georgia agree on delimiting all but small, strategic segments of the land boundary and the maritime boundary; OSCE observers monitor volatile areas such as the Pankisi Gorge in the Akhmeti region and the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia signed equidistance boundaries in the Caspian seabed but the littoral states have no consensus on dividing the water column; Russia and Norway dispute their maritime limits in the Barents Sea and Russia's fishing rights beyond Svalbard's territorial limits within the Svalbard Treaty zone; various groups in Finland advocate restoration of Karelia (Kareliya) and other areas ceded to the Soviet Union following the Second World War but the Finnish Government asserts no territorial demands; in May 2005, Russia recalled its signatures to the 1996 border agreements with Estonia (1996) and Latvia (1997), when the two Baltic states announced issuance of unilateral declarations referencing Soviet occupation and ensuing territorial losses; Russia demands better treatment of ethnic Russians in Estonia and Latvia; Estonian citizen groups continue to press for realignment of the boundary based on the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty that would bring the now divided ethnic Setu people and parts of the Narva region within Estonia; Lithuania and Russia committed to demarcating their boundary in 2006 in accordance with the land and maritime treaty ratified by Russia in May 2003 and by Lithuania in 1999; Lithuania operates a simplified transit regime for Russian nationals traveling from the Kaliningrad coastal exclave into Russia, while still conforming, as an EU member state with an EU external border, where strict Schengen border rules apply; preparations for the demarcation delimitation of land boundary with Ukraine have commenced; the dispute over the boundary between Russia and Ukraine through the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov remains unresolved despite a December 2003 framework agreement and on-going expert-level discussions; Kazakhstan and Russia boundary delimitation was ratified on November 2005 and field demarcation should commence in 2007; Russian Duma has not yet ratified 1990 Bering Sea Maritime Boundary Agreement with the US
UN membership date	24 Oct. 1945
United Nations mission http://www.un.int/russia/home.htm#english
Washington, D.C. embassies > Neighborhood	Cathedral Heights

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