RUSSIA 15 amazing facts about the country and its people.

Russia, the world’s largest country, comprises nine time zones and hold dozens of ethnic groups. Almost seventy years it existed as Soviet Union and was known as the Iron curtain. A communist super power led nearly to a world war and nuclear war with United States of America was always seen as a secret country.

There are many facts about this country and its people still not much known to the rest of the world. Few among them is laid under.

1. Russia having a land area of 17.1 million km² has same surface area as Pluto (16.6 million km²).
2. Russia (143.5 million) has lesser population than Bangladesh  (156.6 million).
3. There are nine million more women than men in Russia. The imbalance is believed to the result of men died during World War II.
4. Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world.
5. The Russia (Bering Straight-Alaska) and USA are only 89 Kms apart from each other.
6. The Coldest Inhabited Place on Earth is in Russia called Oymyakon.  Lowest recorded temperature in Oymyakon was −67.7 °C in 1933.
7. Russia has 11 official time zones.
8. Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. for $7.2 million in 1868.
9. Lake Baikal is the largest (by volume) freshwater lake in the world, containing roughly 20% of the world’s unfrozen surface fresh water.
10. Russia has more than a fifth of the world’s forests, which makes it the largest forest country in the world.
11. Moscow has more billionaire residents than any other city in the world. There are a total of 74 billionaires living in the popular city, which is exactly 3 more than the second-place city, New York.
12. The Trans-Siberian Railway spans almost all the way across the county, making it the single longest railway in the world with length of 9288 km.
13. In space, the Russians then Soviets achieved the first major success with Sputnik in 1959, as well as the first manned flight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961.
14. Alcohol consumption of Russians is one of the highest in the world. Russians are desperate enough to consume any product containing alcohol, ranging from cologne to aftershave and even window cleaners. Some of these substances can have alcohol levels twice as high as standard vodka, and contain plenty of toxic ingredients as well. Each year there are 500,000 alcohol related deaths in Russia. Alcohol related homicides, assaults, and suicides are all among the highest in the world.
15. During a 1995 visit to Washington, then-President Boris Yeltsin was found on Pennsylvania Avenue, drunk in his underwear and trying to hail a cab in order to find pizza.

That is the different Russia and Russians.