THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Introductory Survey

Capital: Moscow

Area:17,075,400 square kilometres (01.01.94).

Administrative Division:21 republics, 1 autonomous
region, 10 autonomous areas, 6 territories, 49 regions and 2 federal-status cities.

Flag: The national flag (proportions 3 by 2)
carries three equal horizontal stripes, of white, blue and red.

Coat of Arms:The two-headed eagle is depicted against
the background of a red heraldic shield with the three crowns of Peter the Great above its heads (two smaller ones right above the eagle's heads and the larger one in between on top of them); the eagle clutches the sceptre and the orb and carries on its chest the image of a horseman killing a dragon with a spear.

Anthem:Andrei Petrov's arrangement of Mikhail Glinka's "Patriotic Song".

State Language: Russian.

National Holiday: The Day of the Adoption of the
Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Russian Federation (June 12).

Fundamental Law: The Constitution of the Russian Federation (adopted by popular vote on December 12, 1993).

Head of State: The President elected for a
term of 4 years.

Parliament: The Federal Assembly of the Russian
Federation comprised of two houses - the Federation Council and the State Duma.

Population: (1 January 1994): 148,400,000

Urban population: 108,000,000

Rural population: 39,900,000.

More than 150 indigenous nationalities live in Russia.

NATURAL RESOURCES:

Russia's known natural resources were estimated at around 28,600 billion dollars (in world prices).

Russia accounts for 15% of oil, 30% of natural gas, 7% of coal, 10% of iron ore, and from 10 to 20% of non-ferrous, rare and noble metals produced in the world. The Russian Federation has enough studied oil reserves to last for 30 years; its known gold veins, and copper and zinc deposits will last for 14 and 75-100 consecutive years, respectively. And Russia's known lead stocks will be depleted more than 100 years from now. Besides, its known iron-ore and coal reserves are going to last for over 200 years in a row.

FORMING A MARKET-STYLE ECONOMY

As of June 1994, about 90,000 enterprises had passed into private hands. Some 70 per cent of all "small-scale privatization" entities, as well as 70 per cent of all major industrial enterprises that are due to be privatized had changed their type of property over that period. In fact, nearly 70 per cent of the Russian population have already used up their vouchers (privatization checks). A total of 16,600 major and medium- sized industrial entities are to become privately-owned; of this number, nearly 12,000 have already been registered as shareholding companies, with nearly 640 voucher investment funds springing up all the same.

As of April 1, 1994, Russia had 277,300 private farms covering an impressive 10,9 million hectares.

All in all, 11,500 limited-liability and mixed companies, as well as 272 open-end joint-stock entities, 1,861 agricultural cooperatives and 936 associations of peasants'/farmers' holdings, were created in place of local collective and state farms, what with more than 424 collective and state farms turning into auxiliary holdings of various enterprises and organizations.

THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY

GDP levels
Industrial output

GDP levels -------------------189.5 trillion roubles
Industrial output------------- 97.0 trillion roubles
Consumer-goods production -----------27.9 trillion roubles
Housing construction--------------------6.3 million sq m
Retail commodity turnover--------------66.6 trillion roubles
Paid services---------------------------8.7 trillion roubles
Freight transportation (forwarding), general-purpose
transport-----------------1.1 billion tons
Popular monetary incomes--------------101.8 trillion roubles
Exports-------------------------------------$16.8 billion
Imports-------------------------------------$6.7 billion

ECONOMIC CREDITS

All in all, the nation's economy had absorbed 30.0 trillion roubles' worth of credits (As of January 1, 1994).

The economy had derived profits to the tune of 41 trillion roubles over the 1993 period, with the industry accounting for about 67 per cent of all profits.

In June 1994 inflation stood at 4.8 per cent.

EDUCATION

A total of 20,600,000 children were studying at Russia's 68,000 daytime primary and high schools over the 1993/1994 academic year.

Russia has 548 higher state educational establishments (As of the early 1993/1994 academic year).

Russia also has 57 universities.

All in all, 2,500,000 students are trained by the nation's higher educational establishments in the 1993/1994 academic year.

A total of 743 gymnasias (553,000 students) and 447 lyceums (284,000 students) were functioning over the 1993/1994 academic year.

Source: Russian Information Agency "Novosti"

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