r seed,
vegetables, fruits; beef, milk

Exports: $105.1 billion (2000 est.)

Exports - commodities: petroleum and petroleum products, natural
gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety
of civilian and military manufactures

Exports - partners: US 8.8%, Germany 8.5%, Ukraine 6.5%, Belarus
5.1%, Italy 5%, Netherlands 4.8% (1999)

Imports: $44.2 billion (2000 est.)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, consumer goods,
medicines, meat, grain, sugar, semifinished metal products

Imports - partners: Germany 13.8%, Belarus 10.7%, Ukraine 8.3%, US
7.9%, Kazakhstan 4.6%, Italy 3.8% (1999)

Debt - external: $163 billion (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: $8.523 billion (1995)

Currency: Russian ruble (RUR)

Currency code: RUR

Exchange rates: Russian rubles per US dollar - 28.3592 (January
2001), 28.1292 (2000), 24.6199 (1999), 9.7051 (1998), 5,785 (1997),
5,121 (1996)

note: the post-1 January 1998 ruble is equal to 1,000 of the pre-1
January 1998 rubles

Fiscal year: calendar year

Russia Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 30 million (1998)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 2.5 million (October 2000)

Telephone system: general assessment: the telephone system has
undergone significant changes in the 1990s; there are more than
1,000 companies licensed to offer communication services; access to
digital lines has improved, particularly in urban centers; Internet
and e-mail services are improving; Russia has made progress toward
building the telecommunications infrastructure necessary for a
market economy; however, a large demand for main line service
remains unsatisfied

domestic: cross-country digital trunk lines run from Saint
Petersburg to Khabarovsk, and from Moscow to Novorossiysk; the
telephone systems in 60 regional capitals have modern digital
infrastructures; cellular services, both analog and digital, are
available in many areas; in rural areas, the telephone services are
still outdated, inadequate, and low density

international: Russia is connected internationally by three
undersea fiber-optic cables; digital switches in several cities
provide more than 50,000 lines for international calls; satellite
earth stations provide access to Intelsat, Intersputnik, Eutelsat,
Inmarsat, and Orbita systems

Radio broadcast stations: AM 420, FM 447, shortwave 56 (1998)

Radios: 61.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 7,306 (1998)