Country Profile: Russian Federation (Observer)
BASIC FACTS
The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world by area spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It shares land borders with fourteen countries, is the world’s ninth-most populous country, and Europe’s most populous country. From 1922-1991 Russia was the largest and most Soviet Republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and, following independence in 1991, assumed all international legal responsibilities of the Soviet Union. From 1945-1991 the Soviet Union and the United States of America led the Cold War East-Werst division of Europe and much of the globe. As such, Russia played an indirect, but critical role in the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement in opposition to the East-West ideological divide. As one of the five Nuclear-Weapon-States recognized under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Soviet Union and modern Russian Federation has played a central role in the global nuclear order since its inception. Today, Russia maintains the largest nuclear arsenal in the world.
Capital: Moscow
Russia has 37 operation nuclear power reactors, with an additional 5 under construction and a final 32 planned. Eleven of Russia’s reactors are of the RBMK 1000 type which is similar to the reactor model used in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The large majority of reactors currently in operation are water-water energetic reactors (VVER). Reactors currently under construction are a mix of newer VVER models, pressurized water reactors (PWR), and fast breeder reactors (FBR). In 2020 nuclear power accounted for 20.28% of all power generation within Russia.
Russia ranks first in overseas nuclear power plant construction. As of 2020, 35 nuclear power plant reactors, at different stages of development, are under construction in 12 countries around the globe.
TREATIES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
- Member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1957
- Signed 1925 Geneva Protocol in 1925
- Ratified in 1928
- Signed Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1972
- Ratified in 1975
- Signed Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993
- Ratified in 1997
- Signed Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996
- Ratified in 2000
- De-ratified in 2023
- Signed Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981
- Ratified in 1982
- Signed International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terroris (ICSANT) in 2005
- Ratified in 2007
- Signed & Ratified Outer Space Treaty in 1967
- Signed & Ratified Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963
- Signed Sea-bed Treaty in 1971
- Ratified in 1972
- Signed Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1968
- Ratified in 1970
REGIONAL GROUPS
- Member of the P5
- Member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
- Member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
- Member of the Eastern European Group
- Member of the G-20
- Member of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa group (BRICS)