Russia's far-reaching northern region is referred to as arctic desert. This are sees little plant life which is restricted to lichens and mosses.

Russia is close to the United States (the state of Alaska), Sweden, and Japan across relatively small stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, and La Perouse Strait, respectively).

Russia was forced to fight on three fronts and was isolated from its French and British war partners during World War I.

Ivan IV promulgated a new code of laws (Sudebnik of 1550), established the first Russian feudal representative body (Zemsky Sobor) and introduced the local self-management in rural regions.

OSCE observers monitor volatile areas such as the Pankisi George in the Akhmeti region and the Kodori George in Abkhazia.

Ministries of the Government of Russia or "Government" composed of the premier and his deputies, ministers, and selected other individuals; all are appointed by the president.

After Lenin's death in 1924, a brief power struggle ensued, during which a top communist official, a Georgian named Joseph Stalin, gradually eroded the various checks and balances which had been designed into the Soviet political system and assumed dictatorial power by the end of the decade.

Boris Yeltsin came to power in 1991 and declared the end of exclusive Communist rule.