Rossiiskaya Federatsiya/Rossiya

Political Status: Formerly the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), a constituent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR); present official designations adopted on April 17, 1992; current constitution approved by referendum of December 12, 1993.

Area: 6,592,800 sq. mi. (17,075,400 sq. km).

Population: 146,946,522 (2012E—UN); 138,082,178 (2012E—U.S. Census).

Major Urban Centers (2005E): MOSCOW (10,150,000), St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad, 4,105,000), Novosibirsk (1,406,000), Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky, 1,298,000), Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk, 1,304,000), Samara (formerly Kuibyshev, 1,152,000), Omsk (1,143,000), Rostov-na-Donu (1,058,000), Volgograd (1,033,000), Vladivostok (587,000).

Official Languages: Russian, in addition to languages recognized by the constituent republics and autonomous areas.

Monetary Unit: Ruble (official rate November 5, 2012: 31.61 rubles = $1US).

President: Vladimir PUTIN (United Russia); elected on March 4, 2012, and inaugurated for a four-year term on ...