Russia Government





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

Government type: federation

Capital: Moscow

Administrative divisions:
  • 49 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast)
    • Amur (Blagoveshchensk),
    • Arkhangel'sk,
    • Astrakhan',
    • Belgorod,
    • Bryansk,
    • Chelyabinsk,
    • Chita,
    • Irkutsk,
    • Ivanovo,
    • Kaliningrad,
    • Kaluga,
    • Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy),
    • Kemerovo,
    • Kirov,
    • Kostroma,
    • Kurgan,
    • Kursk,
    • Leningrad,
    • Lipetsk,
    • Magadan,
    • Moscow,
    • Murmansk,
    • Nizhniy Novgorod,
    • Novgorod,
    • Novosibirsk,
    • Omsk
    • Orenburg,
    • Orel,
    • Penza,
    • Perm',
    • Pskov,
    • Rostov,
    • Ryazan',
    • Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk),
    • Samara,
    • Saratov,
    • Smolensk,
    • Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg),
    • Tambov,
    • Tomsk,
    • Tula,
    • Tver',
    • Tyumen',
    • Ul'yanovsk,
    • Vladimir,
    • Volgograd,
    • Vologda,
    • Voronezh,
    • Yaroslavl'
  • 21 republics (respublik, singular - respublika)
    • Adygeya (Maykop),
    • Altay (Gorno-Altaysk),
    • Bashkortostan (Ufa),
    • Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude),
    • Chechnya (Groznyy),
    • Chuvashiya (Cheboksary),
    • Dagestan (Makhachkala),
    • Ingushetiya (Magas),
    • Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik),
    • Kalmykiya (Elista),
    • Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk),
    • Kareliya (Petrozavodsk),
    • Khakasiya (Abakan),
    • Komi (Syktyvkar),
    • Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola),
    • Mordoviya (Saransk),
    • Sakha [Yakutiya] (Yakutsk),
    • North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz),
    • Tatarstan (Kazan'),
    • Tyva (Kyzyl),
    • Udmurtiya (Izhevsk)
  • 10 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnykh okrugov, singular - avtonomnyy okrug)
    • Aga Buryat (Aginskoye),
    • Chukotka (Anadyr)
    • Evenk (Tura),
    • Khanty-Mansi,
    • Komi-Permyak (Kudymkar),
    • Koryak (Palana),
    • Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar),
    • Taymyr [Dolgano-Nenets] (Dudinka),
    • Ust'-Orda Buryat (Ust'-Ordynskiy),
    • Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard)
  • 6 krays (krayev, singular - kray)
    • Altay (Barnaul),
    • Khabarovsk,
    • Krasnodar,
    • Krasnoyarsk,
    • Primorskiy (Vladivostok),
    • Stavropol'
  • 2 federal cities (singular - gorod)
    • Moscow (Moskva),
    • St. Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg)
  • 1 autonomous oblast (avtonomnaya oblast')
    • Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)

Note: 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: Russia Day, 12 June (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 Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN (acting president since 31 December 1999, president since 7 May 2000)
  • head of government: Premier Mikhail Yefimovich FRADKOV (since 5 March 2004); Deputy Premier Aleksandr Dmitriyevich ZHUKOV (since 9 March 2004)
  • cabinet: Ministries of the Government or "Government" composed of the premier and his deputy, ministers, and selected other individuals; all are appointed by the presidentnote: there is also a Presidential Administration (PA) that provides staff and policy support to the president, drafts presidential decrees, and coordinates policy among government agencies; a Security Council also reports directly to the president
  • elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term; election last held 14 March 2004 (next to be held NA March 2008); 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 appointed by the president with the approval of the Duma
  • election results: Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN reelected president; percent of vote - Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN 71.2%, Nikolay KHARITONOV 13.7%, other (no candidate above 5%) 15.1%

Legislative branch: bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye consists of the Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (178 seats; as of July 2000, members appointed by the top executive and legislative officials in each of the 89 federal administrative units - oblasts, krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the federal cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg; members serve four-year terms) and the State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats; currently 225 seats elected by proportional representation from party lists winning at least 5% of the vote, and 225 seats from single-member constituencies; members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve four-year terms)elections: State Duma - last held 7 December 2003 (next to be held NA December 2007)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 - United Russia 37.1%, CPRF 12.7%, LDPR 11.6%, Motherland 9.1%; seats by party - United Russia 222, CPRF 53, LDPR 38, Motherland 37, People's Party 19, Yabloko 4, Union of Rightist Forces 2, other 7, independents 65, repeat election required 3

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

Political parties and leaders:

  • Communist Party of the Russian Federation or CPRF [Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV];
  • Liberal Democratic Party of Russia or LDPR [Vladimir Volfovich ZHIRINOVSKIY];
  • Motherland Bloc (Rodina) [Dmitriy ROGOZIN];
  • People's Party [Gennadiy RAYKOV];
  • Union of Rightist Forces or SPS [Anatoliy Borisovich CHUBAYS, Yegor Timurovich GAYDAR, Irina Mutsuovna KHAKAMADA, Boris Yefimovich NEMTSOV];
  • United Russia [Boris Vyacheslavovich GRYZLOV];
  • Yabloko Party [Grigoriy Alekseyevich YAVLINSKIY]

Diplomatic representation in the US:

  • chief of mission: Ambassador Yuriy Viktorovich USHAKOV
  • chancery: 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007telephone: [1] (202) 298-5700, 5701, 5704, 5708FAX: [1] (202) 298-5735
  • consulate(s) general: New York, San Francisco, and Seattle

Diplomatic representation from the US:

  • chief of mission: Ambassador Alexander VERSHBOW
  • embassy: Bolshoy Devyatinskiy Pereulok No. 8, 121099 Moscowmailing address: PSC-77, APO AE 09721telephone: [7] (095) 728-5000FAX: [7] (095) 728-5090
  • consulate(s) general: Saint Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg

Flag description: three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red

Credits: CIA - The World Factbook