Many of the natural resources in the country have not yet been discovered or exploited.

Russia is one of the five recognised nuclear weapons states and possesses the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

The official Russian currency is the Russian ruble.

The death of sons of Ivan combined with the famine (1601–1603) led to the civil war and foreign intervention of the Time of Troubles in early 1600s.

The steppe regions take the form of broad, treeless plains filled with long grass.

The Russian Federation continues to implement the international commitments of the USSR, and has assumed the USSR's permanent seat on the UN Security Council, membership in other international organisations, the rights and obligations under international treaties and property and debts.

Geography - note about Russia: 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

On September 17, 1939, seventeen days after the start of World War II and victorious German advance deep into the Polish territory, the Red Army invaded eastern portions of Poland stating the protection of Ukrainians and Belarusians as their operation's primary goal and Poland's "seizure to exist" as the justification of the action. As a result, the Belarusian and Ukrainian Soviet republics' western borders were moved westward and the new Soviet western border was drawn close to the original Curzon line.