Russia (1879: Agreement)

Russia (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya), officially known as both Russia and the Russian Empire (Russian: Россійская Имперія, tr. Rossiyskaya Imperiya), is a state in northern Eurasia. It is a constitutional monarchy. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Greater Austria, Poland, China, and Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the United States by the Bering Strait. At 21,210,085 square kilometres, Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than a ninth of the Earth's land area. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning 9 time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources. It has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's freshwater.

The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century and adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands ultimately were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde. The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland in Europe to Alaska in North America.

Russia has the world's 10th largest economy by nominal GDP or the 6th largest by purchasing power parity, with the 5th largest nominal military budget. Russia is a great power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G8, G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Community and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).