Capital: Moscow
Administrative divisions: 21 autonomous republics (avtomnykh respublik, singular - avtomnaya respublika); Adygea (Maykop), Bashkortostan (Ufa), Buryatia (Ulan-Ude), Chechenia (Groznyy), Chuvashia (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Gorno-Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Ingushetia (Nazran'), Kabardino-Balkaria (Nal'chik), Kalmykia (Elista), Karachay-Cherkessia (Cherkessk), Karelia (Petrozavodsk), Khakassia (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mari El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordovia (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tuva (Kyzyl), Udmurtia (Izhevsk), Yakutia (Yakutsk); 49 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast'); Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orel, Orenburg, Penza, Perm', Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl'; 6 krays (krayev, singular - kray); Altay (Barnaul), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Primorskiy (Vladivostok), Stavropol'
note: the autonomous republics of Chechenia and Ingushetia were formerly the automous republic of Checheno-Ingushetia (the boundary between Chechenia and Ingushetia has yet to be determined); the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg are federal cities; an administrative division has the same name as its administrative center (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses)

Independence: 24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)
National holiday: Independence Day, June 12 (1990)

Constitution: adopted 12 December 1993

Legal system: based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
chief of state: President Boris Nikolayevich YEL'TSIN (since 12 June 1991) election last held 12 June 1991 (next to be held 1996); results - percent of vote by party NA%; note - no vice president; if the president dies in office, cannot exercise his powers because of ill health, is impeached, or resigns, the premier succeeds him; the premier serves as acting president until a new presidential election, which must be held within three months
head of government: Premier and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Viktor Stepanovich CHERNOMYRDIN (since 14 December 1992); First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Oleg SOSKOVETS (since 30 April 1993)
Security Council: (originally established as a presidential advisory body in June 1991, but restructured in March 1992 with responsibility for managing individual and state security)
Presidential Administration: (drafts presidential edicts and provides staff and policy support to the entire executive branch)
cabinet: Council of Ministers; appointed by the president
Group of Assistants: (schedules president's appointments, processes presidential edicts and other official documents, and houses the president's press service and primary speechwriters)
Council of Heads of Republics: (includes the leaders of the 21 ethnic-based Republics)
Council of Heads of Administrations: (includes the leaders of the 68 autonomous territories and regions, and the mayors of Moscow and St. Petersburg)
Presidential Council: (prepares policy papers for the president)

Legislative branch: bicameral Federal Assembly
Federation Council: elections last held 12 December 1993 (next to be held NA); note - two members elected from each of Russia's 89 territorial units for a total of 176 deputies; 2 seats unfilled as of 15 May 1994 (Chechenia did not participate in the election); Speaker Vladimir SHUMEYKO (Russia's Choice)
State Duma: elections last held 12 December 1993 (next to be held NA December 1995); results - percent of vote by party NA; seats - (450 total) Russia's Choice 78, New Regional Policy 66, Liberal Democrats 63, Agrarian Party 55, Communist Party of the Russian Federation 45, Unity and Accord 30, Yavlinskiy Bloc 27, Women of Russia 23, Democratic Party of Russia 15, Russia's Path 12, other parties 23, affiliation unknown 12, unfilled (as of 13 March 1994; Chechnya did not participate in the election) 1; Speaker Ivan RYBKIN (Agrarian Party)

Judicial branch: Constitutional Court, Supreme Court (highest court for criminal, civil, and administrative cases), Superior Court of Arbitration (highest court that resolves economic disputes)

Political parties and leaders:
pro-market democrats: Party of Russian Unity and Accord, Sergey SHAKHRAY; Russia's Choice electoral association, Yegor GAYDAR; Russian Movement for Democratic Reforms electoral association, Anatoliy SOBCHAK; Yavlinskiy-Boldyrev-Lukin Bloc electoral association, Grigoriy YAVLINSKIY
centrists/special interest parties: Civic Union for Stability, Justice, and Progress, Arkadiy VOL'SKIY; Constructive-Ecological Movement of Russia, Anatoliy PANFILOV; Democratic Party of Russia, Nikolay TRAVKIN; Dignity and Charity Federal Political Movement, Konstantin FROLOV; Russia's Future-New Names electoral association, Vyacheslav LASHCHEVSKIY; Women of Russia Party, Alevtina FEDULOVA
anti-market and/or ultranationalist parties: Agrarian Party, Mikhail LAPSHIN; Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennadiy ZYUGANOV; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir ZHIRINOVSKIY
note: more than 20 political parties and associations tried to gather enough signatures to run slates of candidates in the 12 December 1993 legislative elections, but only 13 succeeded
Other political or pressure groups: NA
Member of: BSEC, CBSS, CCC, CE (guest), CERN (observer), CIS, CSCE, EBRD, ECE, ESCAP, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LORCS, MINURSO, NACC, NSG, OAS (observer), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNOMOZ, UNPROFOR, UN Security Council, UNTAC, UN Trusteeship Council, UNTSO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Vladimir Petrovich LUKIN
chancery: 1125 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036
telephone: (202) 628-7551 and 8548
consulate(s) general: New York, San Francisco, and Seattle
consulate(s): Washington
US diplomatic representation:
chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas R. PICKERING
embassy: Novinskiy Bul'var 19/23, Moscow
mailing address: APO AE 09721
telephone: [7] (095) 252-2451 through 2459
FAX: [7] (095)-4261/4270
consulate(s): St. Petersburg, Vladivostok

Flag: three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red

NOTE: The information regarding Russia on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Russia Government 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Russia Government 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.