Country name:
conventional long form: Russian Federation
conventional short form: Russia
local long form: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
former: Russian Empire, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
local short form: Rossiya
Government type:
federation
Capital:
Moscow
Administrative divisions:
49 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast), 21 republics* (respublik,
singular - respublika), 10 autonomous okrugs**(avtonomnykh okrugov,
singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 6 krays*** (krayev, singular - kray),
2 federal cities (singular - gorod)****, and 1 autonomous
oblast*****(avtonomnaya oblast'); Adygeya (Maykop)*, Aginskiy
Buryatskiy (Aginskoye)**, Altay (Gorno-Altaysk)*, Altayskiy
(Barnaul)***, Amurskaya (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'skaya,
Astrakhanskaya, Bashkortostan (Ufa)*, Belgorodskaya, Bryanskaya,
Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude)*, Chechnya (Groznyy)*, Chelyabinskaya,
Chitinskaya, Chukotskiy (Anadyr')**, Chuvashiya (Cheboksary)*,
Dagestan (Makhachkala)*, Evenkiyskiy (Tura)**, Ingushetiya
(Nazran')*, Irkutskaya, Ivanovskaya, Kabardino-Balkariya
(Nal'chik)*, Kaliningradskaya, Kalmykiya (Elista)*, Kaluzhskaya,
Kamchatskaya (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya
(Cherkessk)*, Kareliya (Petrozavodsk)*, Kemerovskaya,
Khabarovskiy***, Khakasiya (Abakan)*, Khanty-Mansiyskiy
(Khanty-Mansiysk)**, Kirovskaya, Komi (Syktyvkar)*, Koryakskiy
(Palana)**, Kostromskaya, Krasnodarskiy***, Krasnoyarskiy***,
Kurganskaya, Kurskaya, Leningradskaya, Lipetskaya, Magadanskaya,
Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola)*, Mordoviya (Saransk)*, Moskovskaya, Moskva
(Moscow)****, Murmanskaya, Nenetskiy (Nar'yan-Mar)**,
Nizhegorodskaya, Novgorodskaya, Novosibirskaya, Omskaya,
Orenburgskaya, Orlovskaya (Orel), Penzenskaya, Permskaya,
Komi-Permyatskiy (Kudymkar)**, Primorskiy (Vladivostok)***,
Pskovskaya, Rostovskaya, Ryazanskaya, Sakha (Yakutiya)*,
Sakhalinskaya (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samarskaya, Sankt-Peterburg
(Saint Petersburg)****, Saratovskaya, Severnaya Osetiya-Alaniya
[North Ossetia] (Vladikavkaz)*, Smolenskaya, Stavropol'skiy***,
Sverdlovskaya (Yekaterinburg), Tambovskaya, Tatarstan (Kazan')*,
Taymyrskiy (Dudinka)**, Tomskaya, Tul'skaya, Tverskaya, Tyumenskaya,
Tyva (Kyzyl)*, Udmurtiya (Izhevsk)*, Ul'yanovskaya, Ust'-Ordynskiy
Buryatskiy (Ust'-Ordynskiy)**, Vladimirskaya, Volgogradskaya,
Vologodskaya, Voronezhskaya, Yamalo-Nenetskiy (Salekhard)**,
Yaroslavskaya, Yevreyskaya*****; note - when using a place name with
an adjectival ending 'skaya' or 'skiy,' the word Oblast' or
Avonomnyy Okrug or Kray should be added to the place name
note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
name following in parentheses)
Independence:
24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)
National holiday:
Russia Day, 12 June (1990)
Constitution:
adopted 12 December 1993
Legal system:
based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
chief of state: President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN (acting
president since 31 December 1999, president since 7 May 2000)
head of government: Premier Mikhail Mikhaylovich KASYANOV (since 7
May 2000); Deputy Premiers Viktor Borisovich KHRISTENKO (since 31
May 1999), Aleksey Leonidovich KUDRIN (since 18 May 2000), Aleksey
Vasilyevich GORDEYEV (since 20 May 2000), Boris Sergeyevich ALESHIN
(since 24 April 2003), Galina Nikolayevna KARELOVA (since 24 April
2003), Vladimir Anatolyevich YAKOVLEV (since 16 June 2003)
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
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
election results: Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN elected president;
percent of vote - Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN 52.9%, Gennadiy
Andreyevich ZYUGANOV 29.2%, Grigoriy Alekseyevich YAVLINSKIY 5.8%
elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term;
election last held 26 March 2000 (next to be held March 2004); note
- no vice president; if the president dies in office, cannot
exercise his powers because of ill health, is impeached, or resigns,
the premier succeeds him; 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
Legislative branch:
bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye consists of the
Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (178 seats; as of July 2000,
members appointed by the top executive and legislative officials in
each of the 89 federal administrative units - oblasts, krays,
republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the federal cities of
Moscow and Saint Petersburg; members serve four-year terms) and the
State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats; 225 seats elected by
proportional representation from party lists winning at least 5% of
the vote, and 225 seats from single-member constituencies; members
are elected by direct, popular vote to serve four-year terms)
election results: State Duma - percent of vote received by parties
clearing the 5% threshold entitling them to a proportional share of
the 225 party list seats - United Russia 37.1%, KPRF 12.7%, LDPR
11.6%, Motherland 9.1%; seats by party - United Russia 222, KPRF 53,
LDPR 38, Motherland 37, People's Party 19, Yabloko 4, Union of
Rightist Forces 2, other 7, independents 65, repeat election
required 3
elections: State Duma - last held 7 December 2003 (next to be held
NA December 2007)
Judicial branch:
Constitutional Court; Supreme Court; Superior Court of Arbitration;
judges for all courts are appointed for life by the Federation
Council on the recommendation of the president
Political parties and leaders:
Communist Party of the Russian Federation or KPRF [Gennadiy
Andreyevich ZYUGANOV]; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia or LDPR
[Vladimir Volfovich ZHIRINOVSKIY]; Motherland Bloc (Rodina) [Sergey
GLAZYEV and Dmitriy ROGOZIN]; People's Party [Gennadiy RAYKOV];
Union of Rightist Forces or SPS [Anatoliy Borisovich CHUBAYS, Yegor
Timurovich GAYDAR, Irina Mutsuovna KHAKAMADA, Boris Yefimovich
NEMTSOV]; United Russia [Boris Vyacheslavovich GRYZLOV]; Yabloko
Party [Grigoriy Alekseyevich YAVLINSKIY]
Political pressure groups and leaders:
NA
International organization participation:
APEC, ARF (dialogue partner), ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIS, BSEC,
CBSS, CE, CERN (observer), CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, ESCAP, G- 8, GEF,
IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC,
IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU,
LAIA (observer), MINURSO, MONUC, NAM (guest), NSG, OAS (observer),
OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UN Security Council, UNAMSIL, UNCTAD,
UNDP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMISET,
UNMOP, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNTSO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO
(observer), ZC
Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Yuriy Viktorovich USHAKOV
chancery: 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
consulate(s) general: New York, San Francisco, and Seattle
FAX: [1] (202) 298-5735
telephone: [1] (202) 298-5700, 5701, 5704, 5708
Diplomatic representation from the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Alexander VERSHBOW
embassy: Bolshoy Devyatinskiy Pereulok No. 8, 121099 Moscow
mailing address: PSC-77, APO AE 09721
telephone: [7] (095) 728-5000
FAX: [7] (095) 728-5090
consulate(s) general: Saint Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg
Flag description:
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red