Russia: 17,075,200 sq.km for about 142 million inhabitants. Capital: Moscow. The Russian Federation (Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) stretches from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caucasus in the south. Time zone: spans 11 time zones ( Moscow: GMT +2). Religions: Christian, Islam. Electricity current 240 Volts. The biggest towns include: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod,Yekaterinburg, Samara, Kazan, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Volgograd, etc. Driving on the right hand side. Currency Ruble: 1 US$ = 24.7 Ruble approx. Official language: Russian. The ethnic/language groups include Russian, Tartar, Ukrainian, Bashkir, Chuvash, etc. The country mainly lives off its minerals (oil, gas, solid minerals), complete range of industries (machinery, manufacturing, defence, chemicals etc) and agriculture.