With a population of 146.2 million, Russia is a country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, also being the largest country in the world, covering over 17 million square kilometres.
The country encompasses more than one-eighth of Earth’s inhabited land area.
All said and done, below are skme fun facts about the Asian country.
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Trees and water
Russia hosts at least 20 percent of the world’s trees, and one-fifth of the world’s freshwater is in Lake Baikal.
Lake Baikal is the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, situated north of the Mongolian border, the lake stretches 644km and is around 5,000ft deep.
Further, Russia is also home to 640 billion trees; almost half of the country is forest.
Cats on payslip
In Hermitage museum, a national treasure of Russia, cats protect priceless works of art from rats and are valued.
Interestingly, each cat has a personal passport with a photo and receives a regular salary.
Languages
The official language is Russian and it’s the only language of just over 80 percent of the population.
There are more than 100 minority languages with the main one being Tatar.
About 3% of the country speaks Tatar.
Other minority languages include Bashir, Circassian, Chechen, Chuvash, Dolgang, German, Mordvin, and Ukrainian.
Brick game
Tetris is one of the most recognizable video games in the world.
The game is extremely simple, oddly satisfying, and completely addictive.
The first edition of Tetris was invented in 1984 in the USSR by programmer and scientist Alexey Pazhitnov.
Nuclear arsenal
Russia has the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world followed closely by the United States of America.
With an estimated 7,700 warheads, the country holds just under half of all the nuclear weapons in existence.
Longest railway
The Trans-Siberian Railroad is the longest in the world measuring 9,289 kilometers and crosses eight time zones.
To travel the whole railroad, travellers need to spend around a week in a train.
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Alcohols consumption
Russians are the world’s fourth biggest lovers of alcohol, knocking back 15.1 litres per person a year.
Vodka is the most popular drink and beer the second most popular.
Beer was officially classed as an alcoholic drink in 2013, up until then anything with less than 10 percent alcohol was considered a foodstuff.
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