,
fruits; beef, milk

Exports: $103.3 billion (2001 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: Germany 9.0%, US 7.2%, Italy 7.0%, Belarus 5.4%,
China 5.1%, Ukraine 4.9%, Netherlands (2000)

Imports: $51.7 billion (2001 est.)

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

Imports - partners: Germany 11.5%, Belarus 11.1%, Ukraine 10.8%, US 8.0%,
Kazakhstan 6.5%, Italy 3.6% (2000)

Debt - external: $157 billion (2001 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: $8.523 billion (1995)

Currency: Russian ruble (RUR)

Currency code: RUR

Exchange rates: Russian rubles per US dollar - 30.4669 (January 2002),
29.1685 (2001), 28.1292 (2000), 24.6199 (1999), 9.7051 (1998), 5,785
(1997) note: 1998 rubles

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications Russia

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are still outdated, inadequate, and low density international: Russia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)

Televisions: 60.5 million (1997)

Internet country code: .ru

Intern