Russia official known as both Russia and Russian federation is a country in northern Eurasia (Europe and Asia). It stretches across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia is the largest country in the world covering more than one-eighth of the world inhabited area approximately 17,075,400 square kilometres.
Russia is also the ninth most populous nation with 143 million people. The Russian Federation was founded following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia has the world's 11th largest economy by nominal GDP. Russia is a great power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G8, G20. Richard Lugar had once remarked, “Despite elections and the experience of post-Soviet personal freedoms by the Russian people the fate of democracy in Russia is perhaps more ambiguous now than at any time since the collapse of the Communist system.”
