Russia officially calls itself the Russian Federation (Российская Федерация in Russian), a name adopted after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, with Moscow as its capital and Russian as the official language. While commonly known as Russia, "Russian Federation" is its formal designation, reflecting its federal structure.
RUSSIA or RUSSIAN FEDERATION, is a country in northern Eurasia (Europe and Asia together).
In 1957, an agreement was signed and later came into force which delimited the border between the Polish People's Republic (a Soviet satellite state at the time) and the Soviet Union. The region was added as a semi-exclave to the Russian SFSR; since 1946 it has been known as the Kaliningrad Oblast.
There are two words for “Russian”: russky (русский), which generally refers to ethnicity, and rossisky (российский), which usually is limited to political life. Those who speak of Russians in ethnic terms call them russkiye. Those who speak of them as members of a civic nation are called rossiyane.
In the wake of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the now independent states of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Belarus came together to create the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). With the exception of Georgia and the Baltic States, the former Soviet Republics joined the CIS by the end of the year.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world, spanning eleven time zones and sharing land borders with fourteen countries.
Everyone may freely leave the Russian Federation. Citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right freely to return to the Russian Federation.
Most Russians derive from the Eastern Slavic family of peoples, with Turkic (8.4%), Caucasian (3.3%), Uralic (1.9%) and other minorities. Birth rate: 13.1 births/1,000 population (2010 est.) Death rate: 13.9 deaths/1,000 population (2010 est.)
Perhaps the most versatile Russian curse word, blyat' functions similarly to the English F-word as an intensifier or exclamation. It's used to express everything from mild annoyance to extreme anger and can be inserted almost anywhere in a sentence for emphasis.
Russki and Russky (pl. Russkies) are English transliterations of the Russian word русский ("Russian"). The terms may refer to: Russki, a derogatory term for Russians.
Support for independence
Since the early 1990s there has been a proposal for independence of the Kaliningrad Oblast from Russia and the formation of a "fourth Baltic state" by some of the local people.
In order to arrive to Kaliningrad by air, foreign citizen must provide their passport and visa. A flight from Kaliningrad to other cities of the Russian Federation is considered traveling within the Russian Federation.
After the war, ethnic cleansing of the German population occurred prior to the city being largely repopulated with Russians and, to a lesser degree, Ukrainians and Belarusians from the Soviet Union. It was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946, in honour of Soviet Communist head of state Mikhail Kalinin.
The term Moscovia was used in many parts of Europe prior to the reign of Peter I. In Northern Europe and at the court of the Holy Roman Empire, however, the country was also known under name Russia or Rossia.
Russia is the largest country in the world by far, with a total area of just over 17 million square kilometers. After Antarctica, the next three countries are Canada, the U.S., and China; all between 9.5 and 10 million square kilometers.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991.
Я тебя люблю
This phrase is the most common way to say "I love you" in Russian, and it's used in the same way as the English expression. You can swap the words around in different ways without losing the meaning, such as Я люблю тебя (I love you), Люблю тебя (love you), and Тебя люблю (love you).
Ya rastroen. Я расстроен. I'm upset.
It's a tricky question, with 77 percent of the country located in Asia while the vast majority of the population lives in the European portion. Russians themselves argue about where they belong; some claim they have a very special identity which is non-European, non-Asian – but rather a specific mix.
The Russians who fought against the Reds in the Civil War of 1918-20 were also called "White Russians." Although in Russian the term Belorussy, the ethnic group, and Belye Russkie, the political group, are easily distinguishable, there is no way of making the distinction clear in literal translation into English.
Sometime in the 800s, small bands of adventures came down from the north to the land of the Slavs. These Varangians, or Rus as they were also called, were most likely Vikings. The name "Russia" is taken from this group. Eventually, these Vikings built forts along the rivers and settled among the Slavs.
Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have agreed to stop issuing Schengen visas to russian citizens and close the entry for russian tourists from September 19. Now Finland becomes the key corridor through which russian holders of Schengen visas reach the EU.
The French emperor—intent on conquering Europe—sent 600,000 troops into Russia. Six disastrous months later, only an estimated 100,000 made it out.
From November 10, 2025, new rules for extending the period of temporary stay for foreign citizens in Russia come into force. Order No. 785 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs dated October 21, 2025, introduces key changes to migration procedures, making it mandatory for most applicants to file a specific application.