05-14-2017, 10:01 AM
Russia (Listeni/ˈrʌʃə/; Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə]), also officially the Russian Federation[13] (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə]), is a country in Eurasia.[14] At 17,075,200 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area,[15][16][17] and the ninth most populous, with over 144 million people at the end of March 2016.[18][7] The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern; about 77% of the population live in European Russia. Russia's capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world; other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan.