Russia,ortheRussianFederation,isthelargestcountryintheworldandissovastthatithaseleventimezonesandacoastlineofmorethan23,000miles.RussiaislocatedinnortheasternEuropeandnorthernAsia.RussiasharesboundarieswiththeArcticOceanontheN,northernPacificOceanontheW,China.
Ithaslonghistoryandhasmanykindsofculture,itcombinedthewesterncultures.Russianslikeoperas,balletandvodka.whenthermeettheothers,theyshakehandswiththem.beinginvited,theytakeflowersastheirgift.theyhatethenumber13,whiletheythink7isasighofhappinessandsuccess.
Knownmostlyforitsnaturalresources,Russiahasmorethan100,000rivers,andtheworld’slargestforest,andlargestlake(LakeBaikal).Russianisthepredominantlanguage,butmorethan100languagesarespokenthroughoutthecountry.RussiaisfamousfortheBolshoiBallet,dancerssuchRudolfNureyevandAnnaPavlova,classicalmusiccomposersTchaikovskyandRachmaninoff,andliterarymaserssuchasTolstoy,Pushkin,andDostoevsky.Russiaisalsoknownforitsfinevodkaandcaviar.MoscowisthecapitalandlargestcityinRussia,followedbySt.PetersburgandNovosibirsk.