Visiting Russia

Russia or Russian Federation is the largest country in the world, covering more than an eighth of the Earth’s land area; with 142 million people.

  The climate.

Due to enormous size of the country the climate is various on all the territory: from subarctic in the North to subtropical in the South.St. Petersburg has maritime climate with elements of temperate continental climate.

  Politics.

According to the Constitution (1993) Russia is a federation and formally a semi-presidential republic, wherein the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of goverment (The Duma).

  Religion .

Official religion is Russian Orthodox Christianity. According to the last poll 63% of population consider themselves Orthodox, 6%-Muslim, less than 1% considered themselves either Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant or Jewish, and 16% are non-believers.

  Language.

The official language is Russian. Within Russia there are several nationalities speaking their own languages.Unfortunatly, English is still not so wide-spread as in European countries. But at the hotels, souvenir shops, restaurants,airports staff is usually multilingual.

  Currency.

The basic currency of Russia is ruble or rouble (symbol RUR), which consists of 100 kopeiks.Notes come in 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 and coins come in 1, 2, 5 rubles, and kopeiks - in 1, 5, 10, 50.It’s highly recommended to change money in the banks.

  St.Petersburg.

St.Petersburg is a pearl of a city, mostly every building you find in the downtown has a rich and centuries-old history. Due to its marvelous architecture, breathtaking views St. Petersburg is usually called either Paris of East and Northern Venice or Northern Palmyra.St. Petersburg was a home of a lot of cultural figures and great people like Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky, Putin and Medvedev and many others.St. Petersburg was a scene of greatest historical events in Russian history as government reforms of Peter the Great, the end of monarchy and uprising of Bolshivik Party, October Revolution of 1917 (also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution) an so on.Now St. Petersburg is large, modern and dynamically developed city with millions of people.The city offers an incredible blend of classic history and architecture and vibrant modern life. So that St.Petersburg became one of the world most popular places among travellers. It is either  great place for history tour lovers or for tourists looking for new impressions.