Russia - a vast country with a wide choice of leisure activities. History lovers have to travel to St. Petersburg, and the route Golden Ring of Russia. For those who prefer a beach holiday, offered Black Sea resorts (Anapa, Sochi, Gelendzhik). Ski - slopes of the Caucasus (not recommended for beginners, as the level of complexity is not for the faint of heart), where the most popular resort - Dombai. Russia also has unique resources for eco-tourism, we should also note the area of Lake Baikal and Khankaysky Reserve.
Geography
Russia (Russian Federitsiya) - a country located in Eurasia (Eastern Europe and northern Asia). The largest country in the world by area (17,075,400 sq km., Or 11.46% (1/9) of the total land area of the Earth, or 12.65% (1/8) of land inhabited by man, which is almost double than that of occupying second in Canada).
It shares borders with 18 countries (the largest in the world). The land border with the following countries: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Abkhazia, Georgia, South Ossetia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea, on the sea borders with Japan and the U.S..
Climate
Russia's position in northern Eurasia (the country's territory lies mostly north of 50 ° N lat. Lat.) Led to its placement in the arctic, subarctic, temperate and partly in subtropical climates. The predominant part of the territory is located in the temperate zone. The diversity of climate also depends on topography and proximity or distance of the ocean.
Average temperatures in January, according to different regions, from 0 to -50 ° C, July 1 to 25 ° C; precipitation from 150 to 2000 mm per year. Permafrost (areas of Siberia and the Far East) is 65% in Russia.
Capital.
Moscow.
Population
146.3 million. In Russia there are more than 100 nationalities, including Russian - 81.5%, Tatars - 3.8%, Ukrainians - 3%, Chuvash - 1.2%, Bashkirs - 0.9%, Belarusians - 0.8% , Mordovians - 0.7%, Germans, Chechens - by 0.6%, Avars, Armenians, Jews - 0.4%, etc.
Language
Russian (official) is the mother tongue for about 130 million Russian citizens (92% of Russia's population)
Currency
Ruble. Equal to 100 kopecks. Notes in circulation are 500, 100, 50, 10 and 5 rubles. Coins of 5, 2 and 1 ruble and 50, 10, 5 and 1 penny.
Time zone
There are 11 time zones. Kiev ahead of Moscow time by 1 hour.
Religion
Russia - a secular state.
The Constitution guarantees "freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, including the right to profess, individually or jointly with others any religion or no religion, to freely choose, possess and disseminate religious and other beliefs and to act in accordance with them."
In Russia are Christianity (mainly Orthodox), Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and other religions.
Political structure.
Russia - Federal presidential-parliamentary republic. The head of state is the President of Russia, elected for six years by popular vote. Head of Government - Prime Minister. Legislative power is vested in a bicameral parliament (the State Duma and the Federation Council).
Customs regulations.
For the citizens of member states of the CIS and signed an agreement on visa-free entry.
To obtain a visa must be submitted to the Russian consulate passport, an invitation (in case if it is not sent by telex), 3-4 passport photos in standard sizes and fill out a questionnaire. These requirements are common to all Russian consulates, with each consulate can make changes and additions to these requirements without any prior notice.
Invitation to which the visa is issued on entry to Russia, issued exclusively Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. The right to have the invitations only to those firms that are registered in the Russian Foreign Ministry. If you plan to visit Moscow, it is better not to use the invitations, designed the regional firms - to register a visa at the Moscow branch of the Office of Visas and Registration will be difficult.
Children under 16 years of age do not have to issue a separate visa if their names appear on the visa and the passport of an accompanying parent or guardian. Persons who are going to stay in Russia for more than 90 days to get a visa is required certificate of non-HIV, valid at the time of its presentation (the period of validity is defined as 30 days from the date of issue).
The tourist visa is issued as a one-time for a period not exceeding 25 days. To obtain private visa need the original invitation (the "Report"), which can be obtained at the District Office of Visas and Registration (OVIR) of the Russian Interior Ministry. The procedure for registration of notice is 45 days. Private visas are issued only a single trip to Russia and are only valid at the place of issue of the notice.
In addition to one-time tourist visas are also issued a business visa (single, double and multiple, are made in the first place). Foreign entry visas for up to 21 business days. Names of children in multiple-entry visa are not made, and visas for them to make out separately. Accompanying family members can also get a multiple business visa. Multiple entry visas for periods ranging from 3 to 12 months are the most convenient for multiple trips to Russia.
Russian transit visa is valid for up to 72 hours and issued to persons in transit through Russia to the third country.
In accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation, be sure to register your visa within 72 hours from the time of entry to the territory of Russia. Single or double entry visa, you can register at the place of accommodation (multiple - for a period not exceeding 90 days).
Duty-free import of things, if the imported goods are not intended for industrial or commercial activity, or the number of imported goods does not exceed the established norms. To individuals aged at least 17 years without payment of customs duties may be brought up to 2 liters of alcoholic beverages, up to 50 cigars, 100 cigarillos, 200 cigarettes or 0.25 kg of tobacco. Value of imported goods shall not exceed $ 2 thousand. Allowed to import and export without paying customs duties goods necessary for personal use - clothes, toiletries, jewelry, photo and video equipment.
In case of import of goods by individuals, the total cost and the total weight exceeds the amount established by law, but the cost of not more than 650 thousand and a weight of 200 kg, is a single rate of customs duties and taxes in the amount of 30% of the customs value of goods, but not less than 4 euros for 1 kg. If the imported or exported goods in an amount slightly above normal needs should provide evidence that it is not used for commercial purposes.
When crossing the border by car, you can take free of duty up to 20 liters. fuel, excluding fuel in the tank. Medicines you can take no more than one pack each item, fish and crustaceans - to 5 kg gross per person, sturgeon caviar (black) is not more than 280 g per person, non-ferrous metal products (household) weighing less than 20 kg, jewelry - not more than five items weighing up to 130 g (for Gold and Platinum) or 120 g (for silverware), articles of precious or semi-precious stones - no more than five items per person, commemorative coins of precious metals in circulation in Russia, in an amount of not more than ten pieces per person and per trip without any obligation to bring them back. The export of Russian commemorative coins made of precious metals to individuals permitted only by special permission of the Central Bank. Import commemorative coins of precious and non-precious metals can be no restrictions.
Link
Phone code +7.
During the stay in Russia you can call the hotel or call office. From the hotel, and international long distance telephone calls are much more expensive than a negotiating point. Free can call an ambulance, fire department and police.
Phone numbers of Russia:
Fire: 01
Police: 02
Ambulance: 03
Reference Service: 09
Long-distance telephone station: 07
Telegram by phone: 06
Rescue (911) 937-99-11
Help pay the addresses and telephone numbers of firms and companies: 927-00-09
Reference service pharmacies: 927-05-61
Electricity
Electrical supply - 220V, frequency - 50 Hz. Plugs and sockets used the European model.
Tip
10% of the total bill (to give them or not - depends on the willingness of tourists).
Weekends and holidays
January 1 - New Year (days - 1 to 5 January)
January 7 - Christmas (Christian feast in honor of the birth of Jesus Christ. Celebrated according to the Julian calendar, which is accepted by the Russian Orthodox Church)
February 23 - Defender (is the successor of the Red Army Day and the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy, originally established to commemorate the victory of the Red Army over the Germans in the First World War in 1918)
March 8 - International Women's Day (originally established as a day of celebration of women workers in 1910 at the Eighth International Congress II, in the USSR and the Soviet Union was celebrated in 1921, the output - since 1965)
May 1 - Labour Day (first celebrated as a day of international solidarity of the workers, was established in honor of the crackdown slaughterhouse workers in Chicago in 1886, the Russian Federation and the Soviet Union - an official holiday since 1918 as International Workers' Day)
May 9 - Victory Day (established in honor of the Soviet victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War in 1945. Closed since 1965)
12 June - Day of Russia (established in honor of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR in 1990)
November 4 - Day of National Unity (established in 2004 to commemorate the liberation of Moscow from Polish invaders, which occurred during the Great Troubles in 1612)
In addition, Russia has celebrated a number of professional and religious holidays.
Main Attractions
Moscow - a place of concentration of the unique attractions like the Tretyakov Gallery, the Arc de Triomphe on Kutuzov Avenue, Pushkin Museum, Gallery Shilov, Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Epiphany Cathedral and St. Daniel Monastery. Numerous churches and monasteries of Moscow, the memorial complex at Poklonnaya Hill, New and Old Arbat Boulevard Ring, Kutuzovsky Sergiev Posad, Kolomna, Kuskovo, Arkhangelsk, Tsaritsyno, Abramtsevo Dvor and Manezh Square, the famous "high-rise" of the Stalin era, Do the "Worker and Collective Farm Girl", a zoo, "Japanese Garden" in the Botanical Garden, circuses, and known all over the world, numerous theaters - that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors.
St. Petersburg has received for its historical and architectural ensemble neofiuialny status of "Venice of the North." Here, the Hermitage, the Peter and Paul Fortress, Peterhof and Krondshtadt, famous museums - Russian, Curiosities, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and others, 16 professional theaters (including the famous Mariinsky Opera and Ballet. Mussorgsky, Big Drama Theatre). Cathedrals - Kazan, St. Nicholas, St. Isaac, the Savior on the Spilled Blood, Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The unique architectural monuments include the Admiralty, the building of the University, the Spit of Vasilievsky Island with the Stock Exchange building, the Palace Square with the Winter Palace, the Alexander Column and the arch of the General Staff, the Decembrists Square (formerly the Senate) with a monument to Peter I («The Bronze Horseman", 1782) Smolny and Summer Garden.
Volgograd - memorial "Mamaev Kurgan" with a unique huge monument "Motherland", a panorama of the Battle of Stalingrad and the scenic waterfront.
Vladimir - the medieval cathedral of the Assumption and Demetrius, Bogolyubovo, temple Intercession-on-Nerl, Golden Gate (1164) with the gate church (restored in 1469), Assumption Cathedral (1158-60 gg.), Frescoes by Andrei Rublev and Daniil black, carved Baroque iconostasis (1773-74), the Demetrius Cathedral (1194-97 gg.), the Church of St. Nicholas (XVII c.) and Savior (XVIII c.) at the foot of the shaft Kozlov, baroque church of St. George (1783-84 gg .), the church of St. Nicholas in Gal Wet (1732-35 gg.), the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin (1649), Nikita Church (1765), Church of the Ascension (1724). Monastic Ensembles Nativity Monastery (Cathedral of the Nativity, 1192-95 years., Rebuilt in 1859-64 gg.), Walls (XVIII c.) Knyaginin Monastery (founded in XII-XIII cc.), Assumption Cathedral (1200-01 gg ., frescoes 1647-48 gg.) with the tomb of Princess Mary, her sister Anna, as well as the wife and daughter of Alexander Nevsky.
Novgorod - monument "Millennium of Russia", St. Sophia Cathedral (1045-50 gg.), Cathedrals Dvorishchensky Nicholas (1113) and St. George's St. George's Monastery (about 1117), the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa (1198 ), Theodore Stratilatus-on-Brook (1360-61), the Savior on Ilyin (1374). Archaeological excavations the remains of many ancient buildings, the wooden bridge, artefacts and unique birch bark.
Suzdal city-reserve included in the "Golden Ring" of Russia, as well as a part of Vladimir-Suzdal History, Architecture and Art Museum. First mentioned in 1024 in the Laurentian Chronicle, the city is famous for its historical and architectural ensembles - the Kremlin, churches, shopping arcade, Basil and other monasteries, the reserve of wooden architecture. Deserve compulsory attendance ramparts of the Kremlin (XI-XII centuries.) Nativity Cathedral (1222-25 gg., Murals XIII-XVII centuries. Iconostasis XVII., Hipped bell tower in 1635), Rizopolozhenskaya (1207) and Vasilevsky monastery (XVII c.), bishop house (XV-XVIII centuries.), Assumption Church (built in 1650, rebuilt in 1720), Afanasyevskaya (1720), Alexander's Monastery (founded in XIII century.) Joachim and Anne, the Nativity (1771), Nicholas (1719), a wooden church in the village of Glotovo Nicholas (1766). In the area of the old city tenements - Church of St. John the Baptist (1720), Entry into Jerusalem (1707), Pyatnitskaya and Nicholas (1772), Resurrection (1720), Kazan (1739), Tsarekonstantinovskaya (1707 ), Sorrow (1787), Lazarus (1667), Antipievskaya (1745), etc.
Arkhangelsk - apart from the unique nature of the city is famous for its museums: local history, fine arts and wooden architecture, folk art. Seating yard (XVII c.) Of the old town - a vivid example of Russian architecture.
