Russia

Russia
Russia is the largest country in the world today. It is about 17 million square feet, which is about 1.8 times larger than the size of the United States, but much of their land is under subarctic and artic weather year round. (5). Weather in these regions makes it much more difficult to live and prosper in these areas. It is also a country that is geographically divided in a quitecomplicated manner. It is divided into oblasts, republics, autonomous okrugs, krays, federal cities, and an autonomous oblast. These are all administrative divisions and terrestrial divisions. (5). One would think that such a large country wouldn’t have difficult prospering, but after the fall of the Soviet Union life for the Russian’s has changed drastically.
Russia is run by a Federal or Federationform of government. This means that sovereign power is divided between a central authority and a number of regions. In Russia’s case the President of the Russian Federation and the Russian Council of Ministers are the main body of executives. Russia does have a separation of powers: executive, legislative, and judicial, but most of the authority is placed on the president. (6)
Although Russia isa very large country they are not heavily populated for their size. In fact they have a negative population growth rate of about 3 percent. (5). As of August 2011, Russia has a population of 142.9 million people. (1). In the year 2000 it was calculated that there were 9 births per 1,000 persons per year; this means only 0.9 percent of those people were having babies. The death rate on the otherhand is 13.8 per population per year. Russia is averaging a 1.38 migrant in-flow per 1,000 persons, but the in-flow is not occurring at fast enough rate or size to make up for the population loss. (5).
There is a fear that Russia could lose up to 50 million people in the next 50 years. Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union life expectancy and the number of births have gone down considerably.About ¾ of Russian’s live in urban society, the other fourth live in what is considered rural Russia. These rural areas seem to be the most affected by the fall of the Soviet Union. Many rural small towns have reduced in size greatly or have been completely abandoned by its former citizens. For example, Isupovo, a small town that used to be home to 30 families, is now a town with crumbling homes,churches, and signs. This town has one inhabitant and he is only there because he has no relatives and nowhere else to go. The 2004 census found that of Russia’s 155,000 villages, 13,000 have been deserted. About 35,000 towns have also been reduced to fewer than 10 inhabitants. (10). Population size has become a serious concern for Russia and for good reason.
Russia’s GDP for 2010 was 1.477trillion dollars with a growth rate of 3.8 percent. (1). Their economic profits come from agriculture, mining and exporting. In the 1990’s Russia was well known for producing wheat, barley, oat, and rye. Russia’s fishing industry was also one of the largest in the world, bringing in about 9.2 million tons. Mining has provided Russia with important items for national export. They are known to havelarge reserves of petroleum, coal, and natural gas, but they are mostly known for exporting iron ore, copper and nickel ores, and gold. (2). Since Russia is rich in natural resources, they rely heavily on them for economic prosperity and political interests.
Russia also relies on imports. Their major imports consist of machinery and equipment, food and agricultural raw materials, chemicals andmetals. (2). Many of the new machinery and equipment is needed to implement modern farming methods to boost production. Farming in Russia has slowly dwindled as citizens of Russia move out of the rural areas and into urban society. It is estimated that almost 100 million acres of farm land has been left untouched for many years even though some of these areas are some of the most fertile areas in...