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Geography and nature
Russia is located in the Northern Hemisphere, to the north of Eurasia. Russia has an extensive coastline of over 37,000 km along the Arctic and Pacific Oceans as well as along the Baltic Sea, Sea of Azov, Black Sea and Caspian Sea. The Ural Mountains and the Kuma-Manych Depression divide the Russia into the European and Asian parts. The Asian part includes the North Caucasus, Siberia and the Russian Far East.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Mendeleev determined the geographical center of the Russian Empire at 63 ° 29 's. sh. 83 ° 20 '. etc.
Most of Russia consists of vast stretches of plains and lowlands and the largest of these are the East European Plain and the West Siberian Plain.
Mountain ranges are found along the southern borders, such as the Caucasus (containing Mount Elbrus, which at 5,642 m is the highest point in both Russia and Europe) and the Altai (containing Mount Belukha, which at the 4,506 m is the highest point of Siberia outside of the Russian Far East); and in the eastern parts, such as the Verkhoyansk Range or the volcanoes of Kamchatka Peninsula (containing Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which at the 4,750 m is the highest active volcano in Eurasia as well as the highest point of Asian Russia). The Ural Mountains form a north-south range that divides Europe and Asia.
Russia has several lakes and rivers on its territory. The largest and most prominent freshwater lake - Baikal at 31,700 sq. m is the world’s deepest, purest and most capacious fresh water lake. The country is one of the largest reserves of fresh water in the world and the surface waters occupy 12.4% of the territory of Russia. The territory of Russia is 9% of the world's arable land and 50% of the world's black soil. Despite this, the growing season here lasts only 2-4 months a year and about 70% of Russia’s territory is a zone of risky agriculture.
The Russian Federation has 4-climatic zones: arctic, subarctic, temperate and sub-tropical. As you go further to the east, the climate gets more and more continental. In the European part of the country, from north to south the Russian Plain is clad sequentially in Arctic tundra, coniferous forest (taiga), mixed and broad-leaf forests, grassland (steppe), and semi-desert as the changes in vegetation reflect the changes in climate
Permafrost covers 65% of the territory of Russia (Siberia and the Far East). Average temperatures in January can vary from 6 to -50 degrees, depending on the region and in in July - from 1 to 25 degrees.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Russia was 45.4 degrees measured on July 12, 2010 in Kalmykia. The lowest recorded temperature was 71.2 degrees in Oymyakon in the winter of 1924.
Over 40% of the territory of Russia is covered by forests, including coniferous forests. Russia has over half of the coniferous forest in the world. There are about 25,000 species of plants and 1,300 species of vertebrates accounting for 20.7% of the world's diversity in flora and fauna. Russia is home to endangered animals as the snow leopard, the peregrine falcon, black storks, owls, Altai mountain sheep, golden eagle, the Siberian tiger, bustard, black bear, moor frog, grouse, black bear, bowhead whale, humpback whale, bison, Ladoga ringed seal and many others.