The RussianFederation is the largest country in the world. It occupiesabout one-seventh of the earth's surface. It covers the easternpart of Europe and the northern part of Asia. There are twogreat plains in Russia: the Great Russian Plain and the WestSiberian Lowland. There are several mountain chains on theterritory of the country: the Urals, the Caucasus, the Altai andothers. The largest mountain chain, the Urals, separates Europefrom Asia.There are overtwo million rivers in Russia. Europe's biggest river, the Volga,flows into the Caspian Sea. The main Siberian rivers — the Ob,the Yenisei and the Lena — flow from the south to the north. TheAmur in the Far East flows into Pacific Ocean.Russia is rich inbeautiful lakes. The world's deepest lake (1600 meters) is LakeBaikal. It is much smaller than theBaltic Sea, but there is much more water in it than in theBaltic Sea. The water in the lake is so clear that if you lookdown you can count the stones on the bottom.Russia is veryrich in oil, coal, iron ore, natural gas, copper, nickel andother mineral resources.Russia is aparliamentary republic. The Head of the State is the President.The legislative powers are exercised by the Duma. The capital ofRussia is Moscow. It is its largest political, scientific,cultural and industrial centre. It is one of the oldest Russiancities.At present, thepolitical and economic situation in the country is rathercomplicated. There are a lot of problems in the national economyof the Russian Federation.But in spite ofthe problems Russia is facing at present, there are a lot ofopportunities for this country to become one of the leadingcountries in the world.
