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 49 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast'), 21 autonomous republics*(avtonomnyk respublik, singular - avtonomnaya respublika), 10 autonomous okrugs**(avtonomnykhokrugov, singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 6 krays*** (krayev, singular - kray),2 federal cities (singular - gorod)****, and 1 autonomous oblast*****(avtonomnayaoblast'); 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, Penzenskaya, Permskaya, Komi-Permyatskiy (Kudymkar)**,Primorskiy (Vladivostok)***, Pskovskaya, Rostovskaya, Ryazanskaya, Sakha (Yakutiya)*,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 placename with an adjectival ending 'skaya' or 'skiy', the word Oblast' or AvonomnyyOkrug or Kray should be added to the place name
note : the autonomous republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia were formerly theautonomous republic of Checheno-Ingushetia (the boundary between Chechnyaand Ingushetia has yet to be determined); the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburgare federal cities; administrative divisions have the same names as theiradministrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name followingin 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 Viktor StepanovichCHERNOMYRDIN (since 14 December 1992), First Deputy Premiers and First DeputyChairmen of the Government Anatoliy Borisovich CHUBAYS (since NA March 1997),Boris Y. NEMTSOV (since NA March 1997)
cabinet: Ministries of the Government or "Government" appointed by the president
note: there is also a Presidential Administration that drafts presidentialedicts and provides staff and policy support to the entire executive branch;a Security Council that was originally established as a presidential advisorybody in June 1991 with responsibility for managing individual and state security;a Defense Council and a Foreign Policy Council formed in July 1996 and October1996 respectively
elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term; election lastheld 16 June 1996 with runoff election on 3 July 1996 (next to be held NAJune 2000); note - no vice president; if the president dies in office, cannotexercise his powers because of ill health, is impeached, or resigns, the premiersucceeds him; the premier serves as acting president until a new presidentialelection is held, which must be within three months; premier and deputy premiersappointed 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 ZYUGANOV 40%

Legislative branch bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoe Sobranie consists of the FederationCouncil or Sovet Federatsii (178 seats, filled ex-officio by the top executiveand legislative officials in each of the 89 federal administrative units -oblasts, krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the cities ofMoscow and St. Petersburg; members serve four-year terms) and the State Dumaor Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats, half elected in single-member districtsand half elected from national party lists; members are elected by directpopular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections : State Duma - last held 17 December 1995 (next to be held NA December1999)
election results: State Duma - percent of vote received by parties clearing the 5% thresholdentitling them to a proportional share of the 225 party list seats - CommunistParty of the Russian Federation 22.3%, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia11.2%, Our Home Is Russia 10.1%, Yabloko Bloc 6.9%; seats by party - CommunistParty of the Russian Federation 157, independents 78, Our Home Is Russia 55,Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 51, Yabloko Bloc 45, Agrarian Party ofRussia 20, Russia's Democratic Choice 9, Power To the People 9, Congress ofRussian Communities 5, Forward, Russia! 3, Women of Russia 3, other parties15

Judicial branch Constitutional Court, judges are appointed by the Federation Councilon recommendation of the president; Supreme Court, judges are appointed bythe Federation Council on recommendation of the president; Superior Courtof Arbitration, judges are appointed by the Federation Council on recommendationof the president

Political parties and leaders
pro-market democrats : Yabloko Bloc [Grigoriy YAVLINSKIY]; Russia's Democratic Choice Party[Yegor GAYDAR]; Forward, Russia! [Boris FEDOROV]
centrists/special interest parties: Our Home Is Russia [Viktor CHERNOMYRDIN]; Russian People's RepublicanParty [Aleksandr LEBED]; Congress of Russian Communities [Dmitriy ROGOZIN];Women of Russia [Alevtina FEDULOVA and Yekaterina LAKHOVA]
anti-market and/or ultranationalist : Communist Party of the Russian Federation [Gennadiy ZYUGANOV]; LiberalDemocratic Party of Russia [Vladimir ZHIRINOVSKIY]; Agrarian Party [MikhailLAPSHIN]; Power To the People [Nikolay RYZHKOV and Sergey BABURIN]; RussianCommunist Workers' Party [Viktor ANPILOV and Viktor TYULKIN]
note: some 269 political parties, blocs, and associations tried to gatherenough signatures to run slates of candidates in the 17 December 1995 Dumaelections; 43 succeeded

Political pressure groups and leaders NA

International organization participation BIS (pending member), BSEC, CBSS, CCC, CE, CERN (observer), CIS, EBRD,ECE, ESCAP, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat,Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, MINURSO, MTCR, NACC, NSG,OAS (observer), OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UN Security Council, UNAVEM III, UNCTAD,UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMIBH, UNMIH, UNMOP, UNOMIG, UNPREDEP,UNTAES, 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 (vacant); Charge d'Affaires John F. TEFFT
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 1997 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Russia Government 1997 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Russia Government 1997 should be addressed to the CIA.