Backgrounder: Basic facts about Russia

The following are some basic facts about Russia.

Geography: Sharing borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Russia covers an area of more than 17 million square km stretching from Europe to Asia.

The National Flag

Population: About 141 million as of July, 2007. Most of them are Russians.

Capital: Moscow.

Official language: Russian.

Natural resources: Forest covers about 51 percent of Russia's land area. Russia's discovered reserves of natural gas is over 48,000 billion cubic meters and its reserves of coal of 200 billion tons rank second in the world. Russia's other mineral resources include iron, zinc, lead, nickel, aluminum, molybdenum, gold, platinum and other nonferrous metals.

History: The Principality of Muscovy, established in the 12th century, gradually got rid of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and conquered surrounding principalities.