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06-06-2006 17:13

With the city of Moscow as its capital, the country's formal name is the Russian Federation that emerged after the Soviet Uniondisintegrated into 15 separate geopolitical entities in 1991.

Covering more than 17.0754 million square km in Europe and Asia, Russia succeeded the Soviet Union as the largest country in the world.

It has a population of 140 million (2003). The official language is Russian. The national currency is ruble and the country's major religion is the Russian Orthodox Church followed by Islam.

Russia abounds in natural resources, especially oil, natural gas and timber. The oil and gas industries are the backbone of thenational economy.

Russia's administrative divisions include 21 autonomous republics, 49 oblasts or provinces, six territories (kray), 10 autonomous regions (okrug) and one autonomous oblast. The cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg have separate status at oblast level.Under the 1993 constitution, Russia has a democratic and federal government system divided into executive, legislative and judicialbranches.

The president, elected for a four-year term, sets the basic tone of domestic and foreign policies. The prime minister appointsa cabinet to administer executive functions. The prime minister administers policy according to the constitution, laws and presidential decrees.

The parliament, a bicameral Federal Assembly, has a lower house-- the State Duma -- with 450 members serving four-year terms, and an upper house -- the Federation Council -- with 178 seats. The three highest judicial bodies are the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Arbitration. Judges are appointed by the president with confirmation from the Federation Council.

Russia's armed forces, consisting of land, navy, air and strategic missile forces, totaled 1.12 million troops in 2002. In 1992, the Russian Federation inherited the bulk of the Soviet Union's armed forces, but between 1992 and 1996 the size of the military was reduced from about 2.8 million troops to 1.5 million.

In December 1996, the State Duma recommended the establishment of a federal department to set military reform guidelines through 2005.

The head of states:

Born in Russia's second largest city of Leningrad, currently named St. Petersburg, on Oct. 7, 1952, Putin graduated from the Law Department of the Leningrad State University in 1975 and was commissioned to work for the former Soviet Union's State Security Committee (KGB).

In 1984, he was sent to the KGB Red Banner Academy and Foreign Intelligence School, and in 1985 he was posted to the former German Democratic Republic, where he served until 1990.

In 1990, Putin worked as an assistant to the rector of the Leningrad State University and then became advisor to the then Chairman of the Leningrad City Council Anatoly Sobchak. After Sobchak was elected mayor of St. Petersburg on June 12, 1991, Putin was appointed chairman of the Mayor's Office Committee for International Relations.

In 1994, he became first deputy mayor of St. Petersburg's city government.

On March 26, 1997, he was appointed as a deputy chief in Boris Yeltsin's office and head of the president's Main Audit Directorate.

In May 1998, Putin became the first deputy head of the presidential office in charge of regional policies. On July 25, 1998, Yeltsin decreed Putin's appointment as director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB.

In March 1999, while still heading the FSB, Putin was appointedsecretary of the State Security Council. In August 1999, Yeltsin dismissed Sergey Stepashin, his fourth prime minister in 16 months,and replaced him with Putin. Upon Yeltsin's resignation on Dec. 31,1999, Putin became the acting president of Russia.

On March 26, 2000, Putin was elected president and inaugurated two months later. On March 14, 2004, he was reelected as the Russian president and inaugurated on May 7.

He visited China in July 2000 and December 2002 in his capacity as Russian president.

(Source：Xinhua )

 

Editor:Chen Minji