Visas to Russia

General requirements (for all types of Russian visas): Valid Passport (only in original and its validity must cover the whole period of intended stay in Russia).

Information About RussiaInformation About Russia

Russia is the biggest country in the world. It occupies 11.5% of the world territory and its area is equal to 17 mln sq. km, which is somewhat larger, for instance, than the area of Canada - the second largest country in the world (9.97 mln sq. km), and that of Australia (about 7.68 mln sq. km). The territory of Russia spreads for ten thousand kilometres from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Sea of Japan in the east. It covers eleven time zones.

There are 89 subdivisions in the Russian Federation. These are republics (21), krais (administrative areas)(6) federal cities (2) autonomous regions (1) and autonomous okrugs (administrative subdivision of a republic, krai or region) (10). There are more than one thousand cities and towns in Russia. The largest cities, with the population of more than one million people, are as follows: Moscow (more than nine mln people), St. Petersburg (about 4.7 mln people), Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Omsk, Tcheliabinsk, Kazan, Perm, Ufa, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd.

Russia is the Democratic Federative Republic with the presidential government and two-chamber Federal Assembly (parliament) consisting of the State Duma and the Federation Council. The head of state is elected once in four years. In the year of 2000, Vladimir Putin was elected the President of the Russian Federation and on March 14, 2004 he was reelected for the second term.

1. Geographical position and landscapes of Russia
2. Geography
3. Climate
4. Natural territories under special protection
5. Population and language
6. History
7. Branches of Power
8. Environmental protection
9. Museums
10. Religions
11. Traditions, customs, habits
12. Culture and Traditions
13. Russian Art & Architecture
14. Sights to see in Russia

15. Observed National Holidays
16. Russian State insignia
17. Culture in Russia
18. Mass Media in Russia
19.Russian Science and Technology

Geographical position and landscapes of Russia

The territory of Russia occupies a part of the Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. As one can follow the Russia borders beginning from the Far East, it neighbours upon the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, People's Republic of China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Norway. A part of the state, namely, the Kaliningradskaya Oblast, is separated from the rest of the territory by another state that is Lithuania. The land boundary of Russia is the longest in the world. However, beginning from the northwest portion of Russia washed by the Baltic Sea, its entire northern and eastern boundary of the territory is the water-line boundary. In the south, Russia also has water boundaries running along the Black and Caspian Seas. Because of theirs scales, the landscapes of Russia are rather variable, from swamps to waterless steppes and arctic tundra. A considerable portion of the territory is covered with tundra and taiga, and more than 60% of the territory is perpetually frozen ground. Three fourths of the territory of Russia is plains. In the west, this is the East-European plain where low uplands (the Valdaiskaya, Srednerusskaya, Privolzhskaya uplands, etc.) are alternating with the lowlands (the Oksko-Donskaya, Pricaspiyskaya lowlands). From the east, this territory is limited by the Ural Mountains behind which another plain begins, i.e., the West-Siberian plain, which stretches down to the Enisei River. Lying further to the east, between the Enisei and Lena rivers is the Srednesibirskoye highland some sections of which rise high up to 1701 m (the Putoran plateau). Further to the east, the highland changes over to the Central Yakutskaya plain. The mountainous relief is dominating in the east and south of the country. Situated in the south of the European part are the Caucasian Mountains. The highest point of the Large Caucuses and concurrently the highest peak of Europe is the Elborus Mountains. Located in the southern part of Siberia are the Altai Mountains (the Belukha Mountain, 4506 m), the Western and Eastern Sayani, the Kuznetski Alatau, the Mountains of Tuva, Pribaikalie, Zabaikalie, etc. Rising high in the northwest are the Verkhoianski crest and the Tcherski crest, and in the Far East - the Tchukotskoye and Koriakskoye mountain lands and the Sikhote-Alin Mountains. Stretching along the far-east coast of the Pacific Ocean is the belt of young Kamchatka Mountains with the highest acting volcano of Eurasia named the Kluchevskaya mud volcano (4750 m) and the acting volcanoes of the Kurilie Islands. There are about 120 thousand rivers in Russia having the length of more than 10 km. Their total length is 2.3 mln km. The rivers of Russia are relating to the basins of three oceans: the Arctic Ocean (the Northern Dvina, Pechora, Ob, Irtish, Enisei, Lena, Indigirka, Kolima rivers and so on), the Pacific Ocean (the Amur, Anadir, Penzhina rivers and so on) and the Atlantic Ocean (the Don, Kuban and Neva Rivers). The Volga River, which is the largest river of Europe (3531 km), falls into the Caspian Sea (Lake) and is related to the internal drainage system. Russia is the country of lakes. Their total number of kales (salt and fresh-water) is about two million. Located in Russia are the largest natural fresh-water reservoir and the deepest lake of the world - the Baikal Lake (1637-m deep) and also the largest lakes of Europe - the Ladozhskoye Ozero and Onega Lake. Distinguished by its sizes is also the north lake called Taimir. Note-worthy of salt lakes are the Caspian Lake-Sea and the Baskunchak Lake. There are a lot of artificial "seas" - reservoirs in the country. Related to artificially made reservoirs is the Bratskoye reservoir, which is the largest in the world.

Geography

As the world's largest country Russia measures over 9.000 km from West to East and between 2.500 to 4.000 km from North to South. Russia with its Western enclave of Kaliningrad oblast is bounded on the North by Norway, on the West by Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine, on the South by Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, Mongolia, China, People's Republic of Korea, and on the East by the USA. Russia's shores are washed by 12 seas of three oceans: the Atlantic (Baltic, Black and Azov seas), the Arctic Ocean (Barents, White, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Chukotka), and the Pacific Ocean (Bering, Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan). The country has a tremendous wealth of natural resources.

Some 14% of the Russian territory lies beyond the Arctic Circle, within the perennial permafrost zone, with a long arctic night (occasionally, up to 60 days with the sun below the horizon). Russia displays a variety of landforms and environments. Its chief regions (from West to East) are the Russian (or East European) Plain, the Ural Mountains, the West Siberian Plain, the Central Siberian Plateau, and the Far East. The Russian Plain occupies North-Western, or European, Russia and consists of a series of low, rolling uplands and broad river basins. In the northern half of the plain, which was formerly covered by glaciers, the relief between the river valleys is strewn with lakes and swamps, while in the southern half the watersheds are higher and are cut into by valleys and ravines. The Russian Plain contains Russia's most economically important rivers, among them the Don and Volga. On the South, the Russian Plain is bordered by the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian seas.

The Ural Mountains form the Eastern limit of the Russian Plain, as well as the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia, and run for about 2,100 km from North to South. The highest peak, Mount Narodnaya, reaches 1,895 m, and other summits range from 900 to 1,500 m, but the many passes make the Urals no barrier to transport. East of the Urals lies one of the most extensive lowlands in the world, the West Sibarian Plain, which is drained by the Ob and Yenisey rivers. The West Siberian Plain merges in the East with the Central Siberian Plateau, which lies mainly at heights of 300-700 m between the Yenisey and Lena river basins. This plateau is bordered on the South by minor mountain ranges that are centred on Lake Baikal. The easternmost portion of Russia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean and is fringed by various mountain chains. This Far East area also includes the Kamchatka and the Kuril and Sakhalin islands.

Climate

Extending thousands of kilometres from North to South, Russia spans four climatic zones - arctic, subarctic, temperate and subtropical. Most of the country's area lies in a temperate continental climate, with all the seasons following cyclically one another, with a long cold and snowy winter and a warm summer. The continental character of the climate grows more rigorous in Siberia and the northern districts of the Far East, which have a pronounced continental climate that makes the weather generally quite severe, with wide differences between the seasonal and daily temperatures and a thick bed of permafrost under the topsoil. The absolute minimum temperature of -71 degrees C has been registered in the Oimyakon mountain depression, a short distance from Verkhoyansk, in East Siberia, rightly ranked among the cold poles of the Northern Hemisphere.

Russia's Western and Eastern fringes which are fully exposed to the effect of oceans and their seas have three types of ocean-affected climate: marine, transitional, which is actually a continental variety with different extents of sea influence (in the North-West), and monsoon climate (south of the Russian Far East). The islands and the mainland littoral of the Arctic Ocean have a severe arctic and subarctic climate. At the opposite end, the resort belt on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, from Tuapse to Anapa, boasts a subtropical, with a warm and moist winter and a dry and hot summer.

The mean daily temperatures of January across the whole of Russia, except for the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, are below zero centigrade, ranging from -1 to -5 degrees C in the West of Russia's European part to -50 degrees C in Yakutia. The summer temperatures, too, differ sharply between the North and South of Russia, from the mean +1 degree in the north of Siberia to +25 degrees C on the Caspian Lowland. The rainfall is the most plentiful (up to 2.000 mm a year) on the mountain slopes of the Caucasus and the Altai, followed by the southern areas of the Russian Pacific coast (up to 1.000 mm), where summer monsoon rains trigger river flooding, and to a lesser extent, the forests of the East European Plain. The most arid spot in Russia is the semi desert sector of the Caspian Lowland, with its meager 150 mm of rainfall a year.

Natural territories under special protection

Today, Russia has 75 preserves of a total area of 19.970.900 hectares. These wildlife refuges offer protection to members of 69% of the mammal species, 83% of the bird, 61% of the reptile, and 96% of the amphibian species, and 40% of the rare plant varieties entered in the Red Data Book. Besides 99.8% of the tree varieties growing in the country's European part are under official protection within these wildlife sanctuaries.
Apart from these preserves, Russia has 1.519 reserves, where restrictions are placed on some types of economic activity. Of these, 71 reserves have a federal status, and the rest are in the charge of regional administrations. The functions of wildlife refuges, reserves and recreational areas are combined in national natural parks, 17 of which, with a total area of 3.6 million hectares, have been established since the early 1980s. For instance, the Valdai National Park (area: 160.000 hectares) in the Novgorod Region is laid out around the hub formed by the town of Valdai and Lake Valdai. The woods of this wildlife refuge boast over 70 lakes and abound in rare plant and animal life.

Population and language

There are 145 million people constantly living in Russia. They are represented by more than 100 nationalities speaking their own languages. The most numerous people of Russia are the Russians (81.5%) and the rest are the Tatars (3.8%), Ukranians (3%), Chuvashs (1.2%), Bashkirs (0.9%), Byelorussians (0.8%), Mordvinians (0.7%), Germans and Chechens (0.6% each), Avarians, Armenians, Jews (0.4% each) and other people. The Russian language is the state language and it is used everywhere. At the same time, at the places of compact living of those or some other people, there are widely used their native languages and dialects, there is issued the national press and there are acting the schools with the teaching process on the native languages.

Branches of Power

The Federal Assembly - Parliament of the Russian Federation - is the supreme representative and legislative body of the Russian Federation. The Federal Assembly consists of two chambers - the Federation Council and the State Duma.

The Federation Council

The jurisdiction of the Federation Council shall include:
a) approval of changes of borders between the subjects of the Russian Federation;
b) approval of the decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the introduction of martial law;
c) approval of the decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the introduction of a state of emergency;
d) making decisions on the possibility of the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation outside the territory of the Russian Federation;
e) calling of elections of the President of the Russian Federation;
f) impeachment of the President of the Russian Federation;
g) the appointment of judges of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, and the Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation;
h) the appointment to office and the removal from office of the Prosecutor-General of the Russian Federation;
i) the appointment to office and removal from office of the deputy Chairman of the Accounting Chamber and half of its staff of its auditors.

The State Duma

The jurisdiction of the State Duma shall include:
a) granting consent to the President of the Russian Federation for the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation;
b) decisions on confidence in the government of the Russian Federation;
c) the appointment and dismissal of the Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation;
d) the appointment and dismissal of the Chairman of the Accounting Chamber and half of its staff of auditors;
e) the appointment and dismissal of the Plenipotentiary for Human Rights acting in accordance with the Federal Constitutional Law;
f) granting amnesty;
g) bringing charges against the President of the Russian Federation for his impeachment.