The Russian Federation (Russian: Rossiskaja Federacija; also: Russian Federal Republic [Russian: Rossiskaja Federativnaja Respoeblika]) or Russia, is a republic in the world that both Europe and Asia share is. The total area of Russia amounts to 17,075,200 km2 and is the largest country in the world. The maximum distance from east to west is up about 10,000 km (from Poland to the Bering Strait), and Russia therefore has ten time zones. The European part of Russia beslaar approximately one fourth of the total territory of Russia. The border between Europe and Asia is the Ural Mountains. Russia borders further to the following countries: Norway (196 km), Finland (1340 km), Estonia (294 km) and Latvia (217 km) in the north and west, and through Lithuania to Kaliningrad exclave (227 km) and Poland (206 km), in the southwest to Belarus or Belarus (959 km) and Ukraine (1576 km) and in the south to Georgia (723 km), Azerbaijan (284 km) and Kazakhstan (6846 km). In the far east bordering Russia to China (3645 km), Mongolia (3845 km) and North Korea (19 km). Russia is in the north enclosed by a large number edge of Arctic seas, such as the Barents Sea, the White Sea, the Kara Sea, the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea. In the east it borders Russia to the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Japanese Sea in the south to the Caspian Sea in the west to the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland. The coastline of Russia totals 20,017 km. Kaliningrad also belongs to Russia (Dutch: Koningsbergen; German: Königsberg; Polish: Krolewice), an exclave between Lithuania and Poland in the Bay of Gdansk. The following islands and island groups also belong to Russia: Novaya Zemlya, French-Joseph Islands, North Country, New Siberian Islands, Vrangel, Commander Islands, Sakhalin and Kuril. The northernmost point of the Eurasian land mass, and in fact the northernmost part of the mainland of the earth, is the peninsula Tajmyr. The peninsula extends to 1100 km north of the Arctic Circle. The northernmost point of Russia consist of Cape Rodolfo on one of the Franco-Joseph Islands in the vicinity of Novaya Zemlya.
About 81% of the total population of Russia is composed of Russians. Furthermore live there across the vast country still about a hundred smaller nations, the largest and best known of the Tatars (3.8%) and Ukrainians (3.0%) are. Finno-Ugric peoples living in the northeast of the European part, in the Volga-Kamagebied and further east. The Mongolians live in record from lake Baikal and the Caspian Sea and the Toengoezen live in the area between Jenisej and Lena, and Lena between the Sea of Okhotsk and in the catchment area of the Indigirka. From the northern peoples, the Nenets (35,000) from the Arkhangelsk region of the numerous, followed by the Evenki (30,000) of the Krasnoyarsk region, the Eveni (17,000) of the Enisej and Tsjoektsjen (15,000) in the north of Kamchatka. Of the Dolgans on the peninsula Tajmyr there are no 7000 and other groups are even smaller: the Nganasans of Tajmyr (1300), the Jenets of the Lower Enisej (200), the Joekaghir of Kolyma (1100), the Inuit of the Bering Strait (1700), the Aleutian Islands of Kamchatka (700) and the Nivkhs (4600) and the Oroks (700) of Sakhalin.
The bulk of the population lives in the European part of Russia, the sparsely populated parts of the country east of the Urals and the north of European Russia. The center, located around Moscow, the highest total population. Of the 78% population lives in an urban area, but this figure varies widely by region: in Central Russia lives up 83% of the population in cities in the North Caucasus is that only 57%. The two most important cities are Moscow (10,200,000 inhabitants.) Agglomeration: 12.4 million inhabitants.) And St. Petersburg (4,200,000 inhabitants.). We live in Russia around 8.4 persons per km2 and Russia is the largest country after Canada the country with the lowest population density.
Lived in Russia in 2004 estimated that approximately 144 million inhabitants, and the population in the sixth country in the world. The economic and social changes in the nineties caused adverse demographic developments. The population is aging by a declining birth rate (in 2004: 9.6 per 1000 inhabitants) and a rising mortality rate (in 2004: 15.7 per 1000 inhabitants). The infant mortality rate in 2004 was almost 17 per 1000 live births. The deteriorating socio-medical conditions (including alcohol and drug use) are reflected in the declining average life expectancy: in 2004 60 years for men and 73 years for women. Russians in the nineties returned from other former Soviet republics accounted for some time for a balance, but in 2004 was the immigration balance fell to 1.02% per 1000 inhabitants. She left for the crisis areas of neighboring countries like Tajikistan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The population in the period 1995-2000 increased annually by an average of 0.4%, and for the coming decades will provide a further decline (2004: minus 0.45%).