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=========== 

Russia

 
     
    • Names: 
     
        conventional long form: 
        Russian Federation 
     
        conventional short form: 
        Russia 
     
        local long form: 
        Rossiyskaya Federatsiya 
     
        local short form: 
        Rossiya 
     
        former: 
        Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic 
     
    • Digraph: 
      RS 
     
    • Type: 
      federation 
     
    • Capital: 
      Moscow 
     
    • Administrative divisions: 
      21 autonomous republics (avtomnykh respublik, singular - avtomnaya respublika); Adygea (Maykop), Bashkortostan (Ufa), Buryatia (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashia (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Gorno-Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Ingushetia (Nazran'), Kabardino-Balkaria (Nal'chik), Kalmykia (Elista), Karachay-Cherkessia (Cherkessk), Karelia (Petrozavodsk), Khakassia (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mari El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordovia (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tuva (Kyzyl), Udmurtia (Izhevsk), Yakutia - also known as Sakha (Yakutsk); 49 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast'); Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orel, Orenburg, Penza, Perm', Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl'; 6 krays (krayev, singular - kray); Altay (Barnaul), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Primorskiy (Vladivostok), Stavropol'; 10 autonomous okrugs; Aga (Aginskoye), Chukotka (Anadyr'), Evenkia (Tura), Khantia-Mansia (Khanty-Mansiysk), Koryakia (Palana), Nenetsia (Nar'yan-Mar), Permyakia (Kudymkar), Taymyria (Dudinka), Ust'-Onda (Ust'-Ordynskiy), Yamalia (Salekhard); 1 autonomous oblast (avtomnykh oblast'); Birobijan 
     
        note: 
        the autonomous republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia were formerly the autonomous republic of Checheno-Ingushetia (the boundary between Chechenia and Ingushetia has yet to be determined); the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg are federal cities; an administrative division has the same name as its administrative center (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses) 
     
    • Independence: 
      24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union) 
     
    • National holiday: 
      Independence Day, June 12 (1990) 
     
    • Constitution: 
      adopted 12 December 1993 
     
    • Legal system: 
      based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts 
     
    • Suffrage: 
      18 years of age; universal 
     
    • Executive branch: 
     
        chief of state: 
        President Boris Nikolayevich YEL'TSIN 
        (since 12 June 1991)
     
        head of government: 
        Premier and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Viktor Stepanovich CHERNOMYRDIN (since 14 December 1992); First Deputy Chairmen of the Council of Ministers Oleg SOSKOVETS (since 30 April 1993) and Anatoliy CHUBAYS (since 5 November 1994) 
     
        Security Council: 
        originally established as a presidential advisory body in June 1991, but restructured in March 1992 with responsibility for managing individual and state security 
     
        Presidential Administration: 
        drafts presidential edicts and provides staff and policy support to the entire executive branch 
     
        cabinet: 
        Council of Ministers; appointed by the president 
     
        Group of Assistants: 
        schedules president's appointments, processes presidential edicts and other official documents, and houses the president's press service and primary speechwriters 
     
        Council of Heads of Republics: 
        includes the leaders of the 21 ethnic-based Republics 
     
        Council of Heads of Administrations: 
        includes the leaders of the 66 autonomous territories and regions, and the mayors of Moscow and St. Petersburg 
     
        Presidential Council: 
        prepares policy papers for the president 
     
    • Legislative branch: 
      bicameral Federal Assembly 
     
        Federation Council
         
        State Duma
         
    • Women's Share of Seats in Parliament:

      • 8% (1997 est.)
     
    • Judicial branch: 
      Constitutional Court, Supreme Court (highest court for criminal, civil, and administrative cases), Superior Court of Arbitration (highest court that resolves economic disputes) 
     
    • Political parties and leaders: 
     
        pro-market democrats: 
        Party of Russian Unity and Accord, Sergey SHAKHRAY; Russia's Democratic Choice Party, Yegor GAYDAR; Russian Movement for Democratic Reforms, Anatoliy SOBCHAK; Yavlinskiy-Boldyrev-Lukin Bloc (Yabloko), Grigoriy YAVLINSKIY; Liberal Democratic Union of 12 December, Boris FEDOROV 
     
        centrists/special interest parties: 
        Civic Union for Stability, Justice, and Progress, Arkadiy VOL'SKIY; Democratic Party of Russia, Sergey GLAZ'YEV; Women of Russia, Alevtina FEDULOVA; Social Democratic Peoples' Party, Vasiliy LIPITSKIY; New Regional Policy (NRP), Vladimir MEDVEDEV 
     
        anti-market and/or ultranationalist parties: 
        Agrarian Party, Mikhail LAPSHIN; Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennadiy ZYUGANOV; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir ZHIRINOVSKIY; Derzhava, Aleksandr RUTSKOY 
     
        note: 
        more than 20 political parties and associations tried to gather enough signatures to run slates of candidates in the 12 December 1993 legislative elections, but only 13 succeeded 
     
    • Other political or pressure groups: 
      NA 
     
    • Member of: 
      BSEC, CBSS, CCC, CE (guest), CERN (observer), CIS, EBRD, ECE, ESCAP, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, MINURSO, NACC, NSG, OAS (observer), OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UN Security Council, UNAMIR, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMIH, UNOMOZ, UNPROFOR, UNTSO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC 
     
    • Diplomatic representation in US: 
     
        chief of mission: 
        Ambassador Sergey LAVROV 
     
        chancery: 
        2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007 
     
        telephone: 
        [1] (202) 298-5700 through 5704 
     
        FAX: 
        [1] (202) 298-5735 
     
        consulate(s) general: 
        New York, San Francisco, and Seattle 
     
    • US diplomatic representation: 
     
        chief of mission: 
        Ambassador Thomas R. PICKERING 
     
        embassy: 
        Novinskiy Bul'var 19/23, Moscow 
     
        mailing address: 
        APO AE 09721 
     
        telephone: 
        [7] (095) 252-24-51 through 59 
     
        FAX: 
        [7] (095) 956-42-61 
     
        consulate(s) general: 
        St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg 
     
    • Flag: 
      three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red