Russia (Russian transliteration Rossiya or Rossija) - more fully known as the Russian Federation (Russian transliteration Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija) - is a vast country that spans Eastern Europe and northern Asia. Russia has large Arctic Ocean and North Pacific Ocean coastlines, as well as smaller coastlines on the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas.

With an area of 17,075,400 sq km, Russia is the largest country in the world, covering almost twice the territory of the next-largest country, Canada. It is bordered by Norway and Finland to the northwest, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine to the west, Georgia and Azerbaijan to the southwest, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia to the south, and China and North Korea to the southeast. The American state of Alaska lies opposite the easternmost point of Russia across the Bering Strait, and Japan lies relatively close across the La Pérouse Strait. Russia also administers the exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast on the Baltic coast between Poland and Lithuania.