lgorod,
Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga,
Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma,
Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk,
Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel,
Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara,
Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula,
Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh,
Yaroslavl'
republics: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan
(Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya
(Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas),
Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista),
Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk),
Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola),
Mordoviya (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Sakha [Yakutiya]
(Yakutsk), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk)
autonomous okrugs: Aga Buryat (Aginskoye), Chukotka (Anadyr'),
Khanty-Mansi, Koryak (Palana), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Ust'-Orda
Buryat (Ust'-Ordynskiy), Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard)
krays: Altay (Barnaul), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk,
Permskiy, Primorskiy (Vladivostok), Stavropol'
federal cities: Moscow (Moskva), Saint Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg)
autonomous oblast: Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)
note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
name following in parentheses)

Independence:
24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
Russia Day, 12 June (1990)

Constitution:
adopted 12 December 1993

Legal system:
based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts

Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
chief of state: President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN (acting
president 31 December 1999-6 May 2000, president since 7 May 2000)
head of government: Premier Mikhail Yefimovich FRADKOV (since 5
March 2004); First Deputy Premier Dmitriy Anatolyevich MEDVEDEV
(since 14 November 2005), Deputy Premiers Aleksandr Dmitriyevich
ZHUKOV (since 9 March 2004) and Sergey Borisovich IVANOV (since 14
November 2005)
cabinet: Ministries of the Government or "Government" composed of
the premier and his deputies, ministers, and selected other
individuals; all are appointed