The Russian Federation

The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world. It occupies about one-seventh of the Earth's surface. The country covers the eastern part of Europe and the northern part of Asia. Its total area is over 17 million square kilometres.

Our land is washed by 12 seas, most of which are the seas of three oceans: the Arctic, the Atlantic and the Pacific. In the south and in the west the country borders on fourteen countries. It also has a sea-border with the USA.

There is hardly a country in the world where such a great variety of flora and fauna can be found as in our land. Our country has numerous forests, plains and steppes, taiga and tundra, highlands and deserts. The highest mountains in our land are the Altai, the Urals and the Caucasus. There are over two thousand rivers in the Russian Federation. The longest of them are the Volga, the Ob, the Yenisei, the Lena and the Amur. Our land is also rich in various lakes with the deepest lake in the world, the Baikal, included.

On the Russian territory there are 11 time zones. The climate conditions are rather different: from arctic and moderate to continental and subtropical. Our country is one of the richest in natural resources countries in the world: oil, natural gas, coal, different ores, ferrous and non-ferrous metals and other minerals.

The Russian Federation is a multinational state. It comprises many national districts, several autonomous republics and regions. The population of the country is about 140 million people.

Moscow is the capital of our Homeland. It is the largest political, scientific, cultural and industrial centre of the country and one of the most beautiful cities on the globe. Russian is the official language of the state. The national symbols of the Russian Federation are a white-blue-red banner and a double-headed eagle.

The Russian Federation is a constitutional republic headed by the President. The country government consists of three branches: legislative, executive and judi­cial. The President controls only the executive branch — the government, but not the Supreme Court and Federal Assembly.

The legislative power belongs to the Federal Assembly comprising two chambers: the Council of Federation (upper Chamber) and the State Duma (lower Chamber). Each chamber is headed by the Speaker. The executive power belongs to the government (the Cabinet of Ministers) headed by the Prime Minister. The judicial power belongs to the system of Courts comprising the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and federal courts.

Our country has a multiparty system. The largest and most influential political parties are the «Unity», the Communist party, the «Fatherland-All Russia», «The Union of the Right Forces», «The Apple», Liberal-Democratic and some others.

The foreign policy of the Russian Federation is that of international cooperation, peace and friendship with all nations irrespective of their political and social systems.

MOSCOW

Moscow is the capital of the Russian Federation, the heart of our country. It's a big and beautiful city with long, wide and neat streets and avenues, a lot of beautiful ancient buildings and modern scyscrappers, factories, uiversities, theatres, museums and libraries.

Moscow is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It's more than 800 years old. Being a very old city, Moscow is full of ancient buildings, which serve as historical monuments and museums. Moscow can be called a museum town. There are such world famous museums as the Weapon Storage House in the Kremlin Complex, the building of the Kremlin, which is an architectural and historical monument. On the territory of the Kremlin Complex there is the so-called " Granovitaya Palata", the place where the Russian Tsars used to receive political missions from abroad and hold parties for the foreign guests. There are also other Houses on the Kremlin's territory which belonged to some famous political leaders of the ancient Russia, which are the monument of architecture and live style of those times.

There are a lot of museums in Moscow. The Historical Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts are best known of them. There are also a lot of houses and places connected with the names of famous writers, poets, musicians, painters, etc. Excursions to such places are organized for children and grown up people.

Moscow is also a great theatrical city. There are such world famous theatres as: Bolshoy Theatre, the Academic Drama Theatre named after Chekhov, the theatre on the Malaya Bronnaya Street, the theatre on the Taganka Street, the theatre of Satire, the Miniature Theatre, the Puppet Theatre, the theatre of the Soviet Army and so on.

Moscow is a great University city. People from Russia, all the CIS countries and from the so called distant-abroad countries come to study in Moscow. The most famous Universities in Moscow are: the Moscow State University (which is the biggest and the oldest University in our country), the University of Foreign Affairs (MGIMO). Those who want to study foreign languages may go to the University of Foreign Languages named after Maris Tores. Those who want to get military or theatrical education may go to any of the five higher military schools or to any of the eight higher theatrical schools in Moscow. Besides higher educational institutions there are a lot of secondary schools of general and professional education.

Moscow is also a great industrial centre of Russia. 120 mills and factories of Moscow produce a lot of products. About 100000 people work at different plants and mills of Moscow.

Moscow is a great port. The docks of the Moscow port are always busy loading and unloading ships coming from all the parts of our country.

The transport of Moscow is very well developed. The Moscow Metro is the most beautiful, the safest and the longest in our country, It was built in 1934. Besides the Metro, there is a good system of roads in Moscow. In the years 1998-2004 a new system of circle roads in Moscow was built. There is also a good system of tunnel and underground roads in Moscow.