Country name
conventional long form: Russian Federation
conventional short form: Russia
local long form: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
local short form: Rossiya
former: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Data code RS

Government type federation

National capital Moscow

Administrative divisions oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast'), 21 autonomous republics* (avtonomnyk respublik, singular - avtonomnaya respublika), 10 autonomous okrugs**(avtonomnykh okrugov, singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 6 krays*** (krayev, singular - kray), 2 federal cities (singular - gorod)****, and 1 autonomous oblast*****(avtonomnaya oblast'); Adygeya (Maykop)*, Aginskiy Buryatskiy (Aginskoye)**, Altay (Gorno-Altaysk)*, Altayskiy (Barnaul)***, Amurskaya (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'skaya, Astrakhanskaya, Bashkortostan (Ufa)*, Belgorodskaya, Bryanskaya, Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude)*, Chechnya (Groznyy)*, Chelyabinskaya, Chitinskaya, Chukotskiy (Anadyr')**, Chuvashiya (Cheboksary)*, Dagestan (Makhachkala)*, Evenkiyskiy (Tura)**, Ingushetiya (Nazran')*, Irkutskaya, Ivanovskaya, Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik)*, Kaliningradskaya, Kalmykiya (Elista)*, Kaluzkskaya, Kamchatskaya (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk)*, Kareliya (Petrozavodsk)*, Kemerovskaya, Khabarovskiy***, Khakasiya (Abakan)*, Khanty-Mansiyskiy (Khanty-Mansiysk)**, Kirovskaya, Komi (Syktyvkar)*, Koryakskiy (Palana)**, Kostromskaya, Krasnodarskiy***, Krasnoyarskiy***, Kurganskaya, Kurskaya, Leningradskaya, Lipetskaya, Magadanskaya, Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola)*, Mordoviya (Saransk)*, Moskovskaya, Moskva****, Murmanskaya, Nenetskiy (Nar'yan-Mar)**, Nizhegorodskaya, Novgorodskaya, Novosibirskaya, Omskaya, Orenburgskaya, Orlovskaya (Orel), Penzenskaya, Permskaya, Komi-Permyatskiy (Kudymkar)**, Primorskiy (Vladivostok)***, Pskovskaya, Rostovskaya, Ryazanskaya, Sakha (Yakutsk)*, Sakhalinskaya (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samarskaya, Sankt-Peterburg****, Saratovskaya, Severnaya Osetiya-Alaniya (Vladikavkaz)*, Smolenskaya, Stavropol'skiy***, Sverdlovskaya (Yekaterinburg), Tambovskaya, Tatarstan (Kazan')*, Taymyrskiy (Dudinka)**, Tomskaya, Tul'skaya, Tverskaya, Tyumenskaya, Tyva (Kyzyl)*, Udmurtiya (Izhevsk)*, Ul'yanovskaya, Ust'-Ordynskiy Buryatskiy (Ust'-Ordynskiy)**, Vladimirskaya, Volgogradskaya, Vologodskaya, Voronezhskaya, Yamalo-Nenetskiy (Salekhard)**, Yaroslavskaya, Yevreyskaya*****; note - when using a place name with an adjectival ending 'skaya' or 'skiy,' the word Oblast' or Avonomnyy Okrug or Kray should be added to the place name
note: the autonomous republics of Chechnya and Ingushetiya were formerly the autonomous republic of Checheno-Ingushetia (the boundary between Chechnya and Ingushetia has yet to be determined); the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg are federal cities; administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (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 Russian Federation Government Sergey Vladilenovich KIRIYENKO (since 23 March 1998), Deputy Premiers and Deputy Chairmen of the Government Viktor Borisovich KHRISTENKO (since 28 April 1998), Boris Yefimovich NEMTSOV (since 28 April 1998), Oleg Nikolayevich SYSUYEV (since 17 March 1997)
cabinet: Ministries of the Government or "Government" appointed by the president
note: there is also a Presidential Administration that drafts presidential edicts and provides staff and policy support to the entire executive branch; a Security Council that was originally established as a presidential advisory body in June 1991 with responsibility for managing individual and state security; a Defense Council and a Foreign Policy Council formed in July 1996 and October 1996 respectively
elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term; election last held 16 June 1996 with runoff election on 3 July 1996 (next to be held NA June 2000); note - no vice president; if the president dies in office, cannot exercise his powers because of ill health, is impeached, or resigns, the premier succeeds him; the premier serves as acting president until a new presidential election is held, which must be within three months; premier and deputy premiers appointed by the president with the approval of the Duma
election results: Boris Nikolayevich YEL'TSIN elected president; percent of vote in runoff - YEL'TSIN 54%, Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV 40%

Legislative branch bicameral Federal Assembly or Federal'noye Sobraniye consists of the Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (178 seats, filled ex-officio by the top executive and legislative officials in each of the 89 federal administrative units - oblasts, krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg; members serve four-year terms) and the State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats, half elected in single-member districts and half elected from national party lists; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: State Duma - last held 17 December 1995 (next to be held NA December 1999)
election results: State Duma - percent of vote received by parties clearing the 5% threshold entitling them to a proportional share of the 225 party list seats - Communist Party of the Russian Federation 22.3%, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 11.2%, Our Home Is Russia 10.1%, Yabloko Bloc 6.9%; seats by party - Communist Party of the Russian Federation 157, independents 78, Our Home Is Russia 55, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 51, Yabloko Bloc 45, Agrarian Party of Russia 20, Russia's Democratic Choice 9, Power To the People 9, Congress of Russian Communities 5, Forward, Russia! 3, Women of Russia 3, other parties 15

Judicial branch Constitutional Court, judges are appointed for life by the Federation Council on recommendation of the president; Supreme Court, judges are appointed for life by the Federation Council on recommendation of the president; Superior Court of Arbitration, judges are appointed for life by the Federation Council on recommendation of the president

Political parties and leaders
pro-market democrats: Yabloko Bloc [Grigoriy Alekseyevich YAVLINSKIY]; Russia's Democratic Choice Party [Yegor Timurovich GAYDAR]; Forward, Russia! [Boris Grigor'yevich FEDOROV]
centrists/special interest parties: Our Home Is Russia [Viktor Stepanovich CHERNOMYRDIN]; Russian People's Republican Party [Aleksandr Ivanovich LEBED]; Congress of Russian Communities [Dmitriy Olegovich ROGOZIN]; Women of Russia [Alevtina Vasil'yevna FEDULOVA and Yekaterina Filippovna LAKHOVA]
anti-market and/or ultranationalist: Communist Party of the Russian Federation [Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV]; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia [Vladimir Vol'fovich ZHIRINOVSKIY]; Agrarian Party [Mikhail Ivanovich LAPSHIN]; Power To the People [Nikolay Ivanovich RYZHKOV and Sergey Nikolayevich BABURIN]; Russian Communist Workers' Party [Viktor Ivanovich ANPILOV and Viktor Arkad'yevich TYUL'KIN]
note: some 269 political parties, blocs, and associations tried to gather enough signatures to run slates of candidates in the 17 December 1995 Duma elections; 43 succeeded

Political pressure groups and leaders NA

International organization participation BIS (pending member), BSEC, CBSS, CCC, CE, CERN (observer), CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, ESCAP, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MINUGUA, MINURSO, MTCR, NSG, OAS (observer), OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMIBH, UNMOP, UNOMIG, UNPREDEP, UNTSO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO (applicant), ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US
chief of mission: Ambassador Yuliy Mikhaylovich VORONTSOV
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

Diplomatic representation from the US
chief of mission: Ambassador James F. COLLINS
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 description three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red

NOTE: The information regarding Russia on this page is re-published from the 1998 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Russia Government 1998 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Russia Government 1998 should be addressed to the CIA.