It is the largest country in the world by area extending across eleven time zones, and the largest country in Europe and the largest country in Asia.

It shares land boundaries with fourteen countries. It is the world’s ninth-most populous country and Europe’s most populous country. The country’s capital and largest city is Moscow and Saint Petersburg is Russia’s second-largest city and “cultural capital”. Other major urban areas in the country include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don.