Russia is the biggest country in the world, having a total area of 17,075,400 km2, which means that it has more than one ninth of the total area of our planet. Russia’s capital is Moscow, and it’s nowadays considered one of the most expensive cities of Europe and the fourth most expensive city of the world. Other well known cities in Russia are Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ufa and Kazan. Its first language is Russian, although they speak more than 100 different languages throughout the country. It has a total population of 143,700,000 inhabitants and its actual government is a federal republic. Russia wasn’t independent until 1991, and before that it was known as the URSS.
Russia is full of unique aspects and curiosities. Besides being the biggest country in the world, it is also the country that shares frontier with 16 more countries: Norway, Poland, China, Mongolia… Overall, it’s located in northern Asia and it has more than 40% of Eastern Europe.
Russia is known worldwide for different things, one of them being the low temperatures it records. Oymyakon is the coldest place in Russia. As a curiosity, when fishers go fishing, it only takes 30 seconds once they get the fish out of the water for it to freeze. Another fact that shows the low temperatures that they have to face is that, milk, which we all know as a liquid, it’s sold as a frozen block. Luckily for their habitants, when they reach these temperatures of -52 degrees, they don’t have to go to work or school.
Regarding natural resources, they have the largest energy and mineral reservoirs of the world, that’s why it’s considered one of the most important countries regarding nuclear energy. Furthermore, it also possesses one fourth of the world’s sweet water (not frozen). In fact, Lake Baikal has 31,494 km2 and 680 m depth, being the biggest sweet water lake in Asia and the world’s deepest lake.
Russia counts with the Siberian, train that crosses most of soviet Asia. It connects Moscow with Russia at the Pacific Ocean and travels along an extension of 9,288km. Its ride is so long that it actually goes through 8 different time zones, from UTC +3 to UTC +12. The ride is estimated to be 6 days long, being the longest continuous train that we can find nowadays.
Furthermore, they also have the deepest underground train in the world, in Saint Petersburg, with a mean depth of 60m. Nonetheless, there are some lines that reach up to 110m deep. Regarding Moscow’s underground, it’s known as the most luxurious tube in the world. Fact that doesn’t surprise anyone, since Russia is also famous for the many rich persons that live there, being the second country with more rich residents, after USA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia
http://www.curiouscuriosities.com/curiosities/geography/world-biggest-country.html
http://www.factslides.com/s-Russia
