"text":"<p>Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy emerged from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and gradually conquered and absorbed surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new ROMANOV dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 contributed to the Revolution of 1905, which resulted in the formation of a parliament and other reforms. Devastating defeats and food shortages in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow of the ROMANOV Dynasty in 1917. The communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). <br><br>The brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53) strengthened communist control and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions of lives. After defeating Germany in World War II as part of an alliance with the US (1939-1945), the USSR expanded its territory and influence in Eastern Europe and emerged as a global power. The USSR was the principal US adversary during the Cold War (1947-1991). The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the decades following Stalin's rule, until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize communism. His initiatives inadvertently released political and economic forces that by December 1991 led to the dissolution of the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent states. In response to the ensuing turmoil during President Boris YELTSIN's term (1991-99), Russia shifted toward a centralized authoritarian state under President Vladimir PUTIN (2000-2008, 2012-present) in which the regime seeks to legitimize its rule through managed elections, populist appeals, a foreign policy focused on enhancing the country's geopolitical influence, and commodity-based economic growth. <br><br>In 2014, Russia purported to annex Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and occupied large portions of two eastern Ukrainian oblasts. In sporadic fighting over the next eight years, more than 14,000 civilians were killed or wounded as a result of the Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine. On 24 February 2022, Russia escalated its conflict with Ukraine by invading the country on several fronts in what has become the largest conventional military attack on a sovereign state in Europe since World War II. The invasion received near-universal international condemnation, and many countries imposed sanctions on Russia and supplied humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. In September 2022, Russia unilaterally declared its annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts -- Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia -- even though none were fully under Russian control. The annexations remain unrecognized by the international community.</p>"
"text":"200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation"
}
},
"Climate":{
"text":"ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast"
},
"Terrain":{
"text":"broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia; uplands and mountains along southern border regions"
"text":"wide natural resource base including major deposits of oil, natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, bauxite, reserves of rare earth elements, timber; note - formidable obstacles of climate, terrain, and distance hinder exploitation of natural resources"
"text":"Yenisey-Angara - 5,539 km; Ob-Irtysh - 5,410 km; Amur river mouth (shared with China [s] and Mongolia) - 4,444 km; Lena - 4,400 km; Volga - 3,645 km; Kolyma - 2,513 km; Ural river source (shared with Kazakhstan [m]) - 2,428 km; Dnepr (Dnieper) river source (shared with Belarus and Ukraine [m]) - 2,287 km; Don - 1,870 km; Pechora - 1,809 km<br><strong>note</strong> – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth"
"text":"population is heavily concentrated in the westernmost fifth of the country extending from the Baltic Sea, south to the Caspian Sea, and eastward parallel to the Kazakh border; elsewhere, sizeable pockets are isolated and generally found in the south"
"text":"<p>permafrost over much of Siberia is a major impediment to development; volcanic activity in the Kuril Islands; volcanoes and earthquakes on the Kamchatka Peninsula; spring floods and summer/autumn forest fires throughout Siberia and parts of European Russia</p><p><strong>volcanism:</strong> significant volcanic activity on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands; the peninsula alone is home to some 29 historically active volcanoes, with dozens more in the Kuril Islands; Kliuchevskoi (4,835 m), which erupted in 2007 and 2010, is Kamchatka's most active volcano; Avachinsky and Koryaksky volcanoes, which pose a threat to the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, have been deemed Decade Volcanoes by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, worthy of study due to their explosive history and close proximity to human populations; other notable historically active volcanoes include Bezymianny, Chikurachki, Ebeko, Gorely, Grozny, Karymsky, Ketoi, Kronotsky, Ksudach, Medvezhia, Mutnovsky, Sarychev Peak, Shiveluch, Tiatia, Tolbachik, and Zheltovsky; see note 2 under \"Geography - note\"</p>"
"text":"<p><strong>note 1:</strong> largest country in the world in terms of area but unfavorably located in relation to major sea lanes of the world; despite its size, much of the country lacks proper soils and climates (either too cold or too dry) for agriculture</p> <p><strong>note 2:</strong> Russia's far east, particularly the Kamchatka Peninsula, lies along the Ring of Fire, a belt of active volcanoes and earthquake epicenters bordering the Pacific Ocean; up to 90% of the world's earthquakes and some 75% of the world's volcanoes occur within the Ring of Fire</p> <p><strong>note 3:</strong> Mount El'brus is Europe's tallest peak; Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, is estimated to hold one fifth of the world's fresh surface water<br><br><strong>note 4:</strong> Kaliningrad oblast is an exclave annexed from Germany following World War II (it was formerly part of East Prussia); its capital city of Kaliningrad - formerly Koenigsberg - is the only Baltic port in Russia that remains ice free in the winter</p>"
"text":"<br>Книга фактов о мире – незаменимый источник базовой информации. (Russian)<br><br>The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information."
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy of over seven decades of official atheism under Soviet rule; Russia officially recognizes Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the country's traditional religions"
"text":"population is heavily concentrated in the westernmost fifth of the country extending from the Baltic Sea, south to the Caspian Sea, and eastward parallel to the Kazakh border; elsewhere, sizeable pockets are isolated and generally found in the south"
"text":"12.680 million MOSCOW (capital), 5.561 million Saint Petersburg, 1.695 million Novosibirsk, 1.528 million Yekaterinburg, 1.292 million Kazan, 1.251 million Nizhniy Novgorod (2023)"
"text":"air pollution from heavy industry, emissions of coal-fired electric plants, and transportation in major cities; industrial, municipal, and agricultural pollution of inland waterways and seacoasts; deforestation; soil erosion; soil contamination from improper application of agricultural chemicals; nuclear waste disposal; scattered areas of sometimes intense radioactive contamination; groundwater contamination from toxic waste; urban solid waste management; abandoned stocks of obsolete pesticides"
"text":"ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast"
"text":"Yenisey-Angara - 5,539 km; Ob-Irtysh - 5,410 km; Amur river mouth (shared with China [s] and Mongolia) - 4,444 km; Lena - 4,400 km; Volga - 3,645 km; Kolyma - 2,513 km; Ural river source (shared with Kazakhstan [m]) - 2,428 km; Dnepr (Dnieper) river source (shared with Belarus and Ukraine [m]) - 2,287 km; Don - 1,870 km; Pechora - 1,809 km<br><strong>note</strong> – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth"
"text":"Russian lands were generally referred to as Muscovy until PETER I officially declared the Russian Empire in 1721; the new name sought to invoke the patrimony of the medieval eastern European Rus state centered on Kyiv in present-day Ukraine; the Rus were a Varangian (eastern Viking) elite that imposed their rule and eventually their name on their Slavic subjects"
}
},
"Government type":{
"text":"semi-presidential federation"
},
"Capital":{
"name":{
"text":"Moscow"
},
"geographic coordinates":{
"text":"55 45 N, 37 36 E"
},
"time difference":{
"text":"UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)"
"text":"Russia has 11 time zones, the largest number of contiguous time zones of any country in the world; in 2014, two time zones were added and DST dropped"
},
"etymology":{
"text":"named after the Moskva River; the origin of the river's name is obscure but may derive from the appellation \"Mustajoki\" given to the river by the Finno-Ugric people who originally inhabited the area and whose meaning may have been \"dark\" or \"turbid\""
"note":"<strong>note 1:</strong> administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses) <br><br><strong>note 2:</strong> the United States does not recognize Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the municipality of Sevastopol, nor their redesignation as the \"Republic of Crimea\" and the \"Federal City of Sevastopol\"; it similarly does not recognize the annexation of the Ukrainian oblasts Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson"
"text":"25 December 1991 (from the Soviet Union; Russian SFSR renamed Russian Federation); notable earlier dates: 1157 (Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal created); 16 January 1547 (Tsardom of Muscovy established); 22 October 1721 (Russian Empire proclaimed); 30 December 1922 (Soviet Union established)"
},
"National holiday":{
"text":"Russia Day, 12 June (1990); note - commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR)"
"text":"several previous (during Russian Empire and Soviet era); latest drafted 12 July 1993, adopted by referendum 12 December 1993, effective 25 December 1993"
"text":"proposed by the president of the Russian Federation, by either house of the Federal Assembly, by the government of the Russian Federation, or by legislative (representative) bodies of the Federation's constituent entities; proposals to amend the government’s constitutional system, human and civil rights and freedoms, and procedures for amending or drafting a new constitution require formation of a Constitutional Assembly; passage of such amendments requires two-thirds majority vote of its total membership; passage in a referendum requires participation of an absolute majority of eligible voters and an absolute majority of valid votes; approval of proposed amendments to the government structure, authorities, and procedures requires approval by the legislative bodies of at least two thirds of the Russian Federation's constituent entities; amended several times, last in 2020 (major revisions)"
"text":"the government is composed of the premier, his deputies, and ministers, all appointed by the president; the premier is also confirmed by the Duma"
"text":"president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 6-year term (2020 constitutional amendments allow a second consecutive term); election last held on 15 to 17 March 2024 (next to be held 2030)"
"text":"<br><em>2024</em>: Vladimir PUTIN reelected president; percent of vote - Vladimir PUTIN (independent) 88.5%, Nikolay KHARITONOV (Communist Party) 4.4%, Vladislav DAVANKOV (New People party) 3.9%, Leonid SLUTSKY (Liberal Democrats) 3.2%<br><br><em>2018: V</em>ladimir PUTIN reelected president; percent of vote - Vladimir PUTIN (independent) 77.5%, Pavel GRUDININ (CPRF) 11.9%, Vladimir ZHIRINOVSKIY (LDPR) 5.7%, other 4.9%; Mikhail MISHUSTIN (independent) approved as premier by Duma; vote - 383 to 0<em><br><br><em>2012: </em></em>Vladimir PUTIN elected president; percent of vote - Vladimir PUTIN (United Russia) 63.6%, Gennadiy ZYUGANOV (CPRF) 17.2%, Mikhail PROKHOROV (CP) 8%, Vladimir ZHIRINOVSKIY (LDPR) 6.2%, Sergey MIRONOV (A Just Russia) 3.9%, other 1.1%; Dmitriy MEDVEDEV (United Russia) approved as premier by Duma; vote - 299 to 144"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> there is also a Presidential Administration 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"
"text":"bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye consists of:<br>Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (170 seats statutory, 169 as of April 2023; 2 members in each of the 83 federal administrative units (see note below) - oblasts, krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and federal cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg - appointed by the top executive and legislative officials; members serve 4-year terms)<br>State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats (see note below); as of February 2014, the electoral system reverted to a mixed electoral system for the 2016 election, in which one-half of the members are directly elected by simple majority vote and one-half directly elected by proportional representation vote; members serve 5-year terms)"
"text":"Federation Council - composition - men 137, women 32, percentage women 18.9%<br> <p>State Duma - percent vote by party - United Russia 50.9%, CPRF 19.3%, LDPR 7.7%, A Just Russia 7.6%, New People 5.3% other minor parties and independents 9.2%; seats by party - United Russia 324, CPRF 57, LDPR 21, A Just Russia 27, New People 13; Rodina 1, CP 1, Party of Growth 1, independent 5; composition - men 376, women 74, percentage women 16.4%; total Federal Assembly percentage women 17.1%</p>"
"note":"<strong>note 1:</strong> the State Duma now includes 3 representatives from the \"Republic of Crimea,\" while the Federation Council includes 2 each from the \"Republic of Crimea\" and the \"Federal City of Sevastopol,\" both regions that Russia occupied and attempted to annex from Ukraine and that the US does not recognize as part of Russia"
"text":"Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (consists of 170 members organized into the Judicial Panel for Civil Affairs, the Judicial Panel for Criminal Affairs, and the Military Panel); Constitutional Court (consists of 11 members, including the chairperson and deputy); note - in February 2014, Russia’s Higher Court of Arbitration was abolished and its former authorities transferred to the Supreme Court, which in addition is the country’s highest judicial authority for appeals, civil, criminal, administrative, and military cases, and the disciplinary judicial board, which has jurisdiction over economic disputes"
"text":"all members of Russia's 3 highest courts nominated by the president and appointed by the Federation Council (the upper house of the legislature); members of all 3 courts appointed for life"
},
"subordinate courts":{
"text":"regional (kray) and provincial (oblast) courts; Moscow and St. Petersburg city courts; autonomous province and district courts; note - the 21 Russian Republics have court systems specified by their own constitutions"
"text":"A Just Russia or SRZP [Sergey MIRONOV]<br>Civic Platform or GP [Rifat SHAYKHUTDINOV]<br>Communist Party of the Russian Federation or KPRF [Gennadiy ZYUGANOV]<br>Liberal Democratic Party of Russia or LDPR [Leonid SLUTSKY]<br>New People NL [Alexey NECHAYEV]<br>Party of Growth PR [Boris TITOV]<br>Rodina [Aleksei ZHURAVLYOV]<br>United Russia ER [Dmitriy MEDVEDEV]"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> the Russian flag was created when Russia built its first naval vessels, and was used mostly as a naval ensign until the nineteenth century; the colors may have been based on those of the Dutch flag; despite many popular interpretations, there is no official meaning assigned to the colors of the Russian flag; the flag inspired several other Slavic countries to adopt horizontal tricolors of the same colors but in different arrangements, and so red, blue, and white became the Pan-Slav colors"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> in 2000, Russia adopted the tune of the anthem of the former Soviet Union (composed in 1939); the lyrics, also adopted in 2000, were written by the same person who authored the Soviet lyrics in 1943"
"text":"Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow (c); Historic Saint Petersburg (c); Novodevichy Convent (c); Historic Monuments of Novgorod (c); Trinity Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Posad (c); Volcanoes of Kamchatka (n); Lake Baikal (n); Central Sikhote-Alin (n); Historic Derbent (c); Kazan Kremlin (c)"
"text":"natural resource-rich Eurasian economy; leading energy exporter to Europe and Asia; decreased oil export reliance; endemic corruption, Ukrainian invasion, and lack of green infrastructure limit investment and have led to sanctions"
"text":"complete range of mining and extractive industries producing coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and metals; all forms of machine building from rolling mills to high-performance aircraft and space vehicles; defense industries (including radar, missile production, advanced electronic components), shipbuilding; road and rail transportation equipment; communications equipment; agricultural machinery, tractors, and construction equipment; electric power generating and transmitting equipment; medical and scientific instruments; consumer durables, textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts"
"text":"the telecom market is the largest in Europe, supported by a population approaching 147 million; the overall market is dominated by the western regions, particularly Moscow and St Petersburg which are the main cities and economic centers; all sectors of the market have been liberalized, with competition most prevalent in the two largest regional markets; the fiber broadband sector has shown considerable growth, supported by the government’s program to extend the reach of broadband to outlying regions; the development of 5G services has been stymied by the lack of spectrum; although MNOs have licenses to use 700MHz spectrum for 5G, this spectrum has yet to be released by broadcasters; spectrum in the 3.4GHz range commonly used for 5G in Europe has been restricted for use in Russia by the military and intelligence agencies; despite these limitations, the four principal MNOs each have an equal share in a joint venture aimed at developing a strategy to deploy 5G using shared network and spectrum assets (2022)"
"text":"country code - 7; landing points for the Far East Submarine Cable System, HSCS, Sakhalin-Kuril Island Cable, RSCN, BCS North-Phase 2, Kerch Strait Cable and the Georgia-Russian submarine cable system connecting Russia, Japan, Finland, Georgia and Ukraine; satellite earth stations provide access to Intelsat, Intersputnik, Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and Orbita systems (2019)"
"text":"13 national TV stations with the federal government owning 1 and holding a controlling interest in a second; state-owned Gazprom maintains a controlling interest in 2 of the national channels; government-affiliated Bank Rossiya owns controlling interest in a fourth and fifth, while a sixth national channel is owned by the Moscow city administration; the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian military, respectively, own 2 additional national channels; roughly 3,300 national, regional, and local TV stations with over two-thirds completely or partially controlled by the federal or local governments; satellite TV services are available; 2 state-run national radio networks with a third majority-owned by Gazprom; roughly 2,400 public and commercial radio stations"
},
"Internet country code":{
"text":".ru; note - Russia also has responsibility for a legacy domain \".su\" that was allocated to the Soviet Union and is being phased out"
"text":"102,000 km (2009) (including 48,000 km with guaranteed depth; the 72,000-km system in European Russia links Baltic Sea, White Sea, Caspian Sea, Sea of Azov, and Black Sea)"
"text":"Russia operates the largest polar-class icebreaker fleet in the world with 52 vessels, seven of which are the world's only nuclear-powered heavy icebreakers; the primary mission includes keeping open ports, terminals, and shipping lanes along the Northern Sea Route (see Arctic Ocean map), in the Baltic Sea, and in the Russian Far East, including the Sea of Okhotsk"
"text":"Armed Forces of the Russian Federation: Ground Troops (Sukhoputnyye Voyskia, SV), Navy (Voyenno-Morskoy Flot, VMF), Aerospace Forces (Vozdushno-Kosmicheskiye Sily, VKS); Airborne Troops (Vozdushno-Desantnyye Voyska, VDV), and Missile Troops of Strategic Purpose (Raketnyye Voyska Strategicheskogo Naznacheniya, RVSN) referred to commonly as Strategic Rocket Forces, are independent \"combat arms,\" not subordinate to any of the three branches<br><br>Federal National Guard Troops Service of the Russian Federation (FSVNG, National Guard, Russian Guard, or Rosgvardiya)<br><br>Federal Security Services (FSB): Federal Border Guard Service (includes land and maritime forces) (2023)",
"note":"<strong>note 1: </strong>the Air Force and Aerospace Defense Forces were merged into the VKS in 2015; VKS responsibilities also include launching military and dual‐use satellites, maintaining military satellites, and monitoring and defending against space threats<br><br><strong>note 2:</strong> the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Federal Security Service, Investigative Committee, Office of the Prosecutor General, and National Guard are responsible for law enforcement; the Federal Security Service is responsible for state security, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism, as well as for fighting organized crime and corruption; the national police force, under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is responsible for combating all crime<br><br><strong>note 3:</strong> the National Guard was created in 2016 as an independent agency for internal/regime security, combating terrorism and narcotics trafficking, protecting important state facilities and government personnel, and supporting border security; it also participates in armed defense of the country’s territory in coordination with the Armed Forces; forces under the National Guard include the Special Purpose Mobile Units (OMON), Special Rapid Response Detachment (SOBR), and Interior Troops (VV); these troops were originally under the command of the Interior Ministry (MVD); also nominally under the National Guard’s command are the forces of Chechen Republic head Ramzan KADYROV"
"text":"prior to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, approximately 900,000 active-duty troops (350,000 Ground Troops; 40,000 Airborne Troops; 150,000 Navy; 160,000 Aerospace Forces; 70,000 Strategic Rocket Forces; approximately 20,000 special operations forces; approximately 100,000 other uniformed personnel (command and control, cyber, support, logistics, security, etc.); estimated 350,000-plus Federal National Guard Troops (2023)",
"note":"<strong>note 1: </strong>in December 2022, the Russian Government announced a target level of 1.15 million total troops and subsequently announced further plans to expand the size of the armed forces to 1.5 million by 2026"
"text":"the Russian Federation's military and paramilitary services are equipped with domestically produced weapons systems, although in recent years Russia has imported considerable amounts of military hardware from external suppliers such as Iran and North Korea; the Russian defense industry is capable of designing, developing, and producing a full range of advanced air, land, missile, and naval systems; Russia is the world's second largest exporter of military hardware (2023)"
"text":"18-27 years of age for compulsory service for men; 18-40 for voluntary/contractual service; women and non-Russian citizens (18-30) may volunteer; men are registered for the draft at 17 years of age; 12-month service obligation (Russia offers the option of serving on a 24-month contract instead of completing a 12-month conscription period); reserve obligation for non-officers to age 50 (Russian men who have completed their compulsory service to re-enter the army up to the age of 55); enrollment in military schools from the age of 16 (2023)",
"note":"<strong>note 1:</strong> in May 2022, Russia's parliament approved a law removing the upper age limit for contractual service in the military; in November 2022, President Vladimir PUTIN signed a decree allowing dual-national Russians and those with permanent residency status in foreign countries to be drafted into the army for military service<br><br><strong>note 2: </strong>the Russian military takes on about 260,000 conscripts each year in two semi-annual drafts (Spring and Fall); as of 2021, conscripts comprised an estimated 30% of the Russian military's active duty personnel and most reserve personnel were former conscripts; in April of 2019, the Russian Government pledged its intent to end conscription as part of a decade-long effort to shift from a large, conscript-based military to a smaller, more professional force; an existing law allows for a 21-month alternative civil service for conscripts in hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities for those who view military duty as incompatible with their beliefs, but military conscription offices reportedly often broadly ignore requests for such service<br><br><strong>note 3:</strong> as of 2020, women made up about 5% of the active-duty military<br><br><strong>note 4:</strong> since 2015, foreigners 18-30 with a good command of Russian have been allowed to join the military on 5-year contracts and become eligible for Russian citizenship after serving 3 years; in October 2022, the Interior Ministry opened up recruitment centers for foreigners to sign a 1-year service contract with the armed forces, other troops, or military formations participating in the invasion of Ukraine with the promise of simplifying the process of obtaining Russian citizenship"
"text":"information varies and may not reflect troops transferred to support Russian military operations in Ukraine; approximately 3,000 Armenia; up to 5,000 Belarus; up to 10,000 Georgia; approximately 500 Kyrgyzstan; approximately 1,500 Moldova (Transnistria); estimated 2,000-5,000 Syria; approximately 3-5,000 Tajikistan (2023)",
"note":"<strong>note 1:</strong> in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine with an estimated 150,000 troops, some of which were staged out of Belarus; prior to the invasion, it maintained an estimated 30,000 troops in areas of Ukraine occupied since 2014; in 2023, the Russian Government claimed to have over 650,000 troops in occupied Ukraine<br><br><strong>note 2: </strong>as of 2023, Russia was assessed to have thousands private military contractors conducting military and security operations in Africa and the Middle East, including in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, Niger, Sudan, and Syria"
"text":"State Space Corporation of the Russian Federation (Roscosmos); Roscosmos was established in 2015 from a merger of the Federal Space Agency and the state-owned United Rocket and Space Corporation; began as the Russian Space Agency (RSA or RKA) in 1992 and restructured in 1999 and 2004 as the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and then the Federal Space Agency); the Russian Space Forces (Kosmicheskie voyska Rossii, KV) are part of the Russian Aerospace Forces (Vozdushno-Kosmicheskiye Sily, VKS) (2023)",
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> Russia’s space strategy is defined jointly by Roscosmos and the Ministry of Defense; prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the USSR’s space program was dispersed amongst several civil and military organizations"
},
"Space launch site(s)":{
"text":"Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakhstan; Russia leases the enclave for approximately $115 million annually); Vostochny Cosmodrome (Amur Oblast; first launch was in 2016); Plesetsk Cosmodrome (Arkhangel'sk Oblast) (2023)"
"text":"has one of the world’s largest space programs and is active across all areas of the space sector; builds, launches, and operates rockets/space launch vehicles (SLVs), satellites, space stations, interplanetary probes, and manned, robotic, and re-usable spacecraft; has astronaut (cosmonaut) training program and conducts human space flight; researching and developing a broad range of other space-related technologies; participates in international space programs such as the International Space Station (ISS); prior to Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia had relations with dozens of foreign space agencies and commercial entities, including those of China, the European Space Agency (ESA), India, Japan, and the US; Roscosmos and its public subsidiaries comprise the majority of the Russian space industry; Roscosmos has eight operating areas, including manned space flights, launch systems, unmanned spacecraft, rocket propulsion, military missiles, space avionics, special military space systems, and flight control systems; private companies are also involved in a range of space systems, including satellites, telecommunications, remote-sensing, and geo-spatial services (2023)",
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> further details about the key activities, programs, and milestones of the country’s space program, as well as government spending estimates on the space sector, appear in Appendix S"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> details about the history, aims, leadership, organization, areas of operation, tactics, targets, weapons, size, and sources of support of the group(s) appear(s) in Appendix-T"
"text":"56,960 (mid-year 2021); note - Russia's stateless population consists of Roma, Meskhetian Turks, and ex-Soviet citizens from the former republics; between 2003 and 2010 more than 600,000 stateless people were naturalized; most Meskhetian Turks, followers of Islam with origins in Georgia, fled or were evacuated from Uzbekistan after a 1989 pogrom and have lived in Russia for more than the required five-year residency period; they continue to be denied registration for citizenship and basic rights by local Krasnodar Krai authorities on the grounds that they are temporary illegal migrants"
"text":"Tier 3 — Russia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, Russia remained on Tier 3; despite the lack of significant efforts, the government facilitated the return of Russian children from Syria, some of whom may have been trafficking victims; however, a government policy or pattern of trafficking of Ukrainian citizens and North Korean workers continued; officials reportedly forced, deceived, or coerced foreign national adults to fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine or subjected some to forced labor in detention; the government continued to perpetuate North Korea’s imposition of forced labor on North Korean workers and circumvented UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting North Korean overseas labor; officials did not identify any trafficking victims, and efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers decreased; the government offered no funding or programs to provide services for trafficking victims and routinely penalized victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; officials did not draft a national strategy or assign roles and responsibilities within the government to combat human trafficking; the government's forced transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia—including separating some children from parents or guardians—greatly increased their vulnerability to trafficking; Russia’s war against Ukraine has created millions of Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced persons who are highly vulnerable to trafficking (2023)"
"text":"human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Russia and Russians abroad; although labor trafficking is the predominant problem, sex trafficking also occurs; victims from Russia and other countries in Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, China, and North Korea are subjected to forced labor in Russia’s construction, manufacturing, textile, agriculture, farming, maritime, grocery and retail store, restaurant, and domestic services industries, among many other tasks; traffickers also exploit victims in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, facilitation of illegal migration, and production of counterfeit goods; undocumented migrants and refugees reportedly face particularly high risk of trafficking; the government increased the use of convict labor to offset a shortage of labor migrants; women and children from Europe (predominantly Ukraine and Moldova), East and Southeast Asia (primarily China and the Philippines), Africa (particularly Nigeria), and Central Asia are victims of sex trafficking in Russia; Russian women and children reportedly are victims of sex trafficking in Russia and abroad, including Northeast Asia, Europe, Central Asia, Africa, the US, and the Middle East; some corrupt officials facilitate victims’ entry into Russia, protect traffickers, and in some cases engage directly in trafficking crimes; observers note a growing use of non-labor visas to bring North Korean workers to Russia, where the North Korean Government subjects many of these citizens to forced labor conditions; Russian-led forces in Ukraine reportedly forcibly conscript adults to fight against their country and recruit children for fighting or support roles in eastern Ukraine; Ukrainians forcibly displaced to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine and Ukrainians in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine are highly vulnerable to forced labor; widespread reports indicate Russian authorities transported without consent Ukrainian orphans and foster children to Russia and gave them to Russian families; the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group reportedly recruited and used children in the Central African Republic, and Russian-led forces reportedly recruit Syrian child soldiers to guard installations and fight in Libya (2023)"
"text":"<p>a destination country for heroin and other Afghan opiates; a transit country for cocainefrom South America, especially Ecuador to Europe,Belgium and Netherlands; synthetic drugs are produced in clandestine drug laboratoriesthroughoutthe country; marijuana cultivated in Russian Far East and the North Caucasus; the majority of hashish is smuggled in from Northern Africa</p> <p></p>"
