Russia is located in northern Eurasia. Russia is the largest country in the world at 6.6 million square miles. It borders China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, North Korea, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Finland. It has nine different time zones. It is very large, but the eastern part is not inhabited by many people. Due to the climate it is mainly inhabited by animals. Russia joined fifteen other countries as a single state, called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Soviet Union. They split in 1991 into fifteen different countries. They split because each republic wanted independence and no one wanted to be together anymore. The split began with a failed coup that helped collapse the Communist Party. The Communist Party was the main political party of the Soviet Union. Since all the republics wanted independence, they formed the CIS which stands for Commonwealth of Independent States. The coup plotters were members of the communist party, they arrested Mikhail Gorbachev (who was the president of the Soviet Union) and went to Moscow with tanks and armored vehicles. They wanted to defend their freedoms. They tried to force the troops to attack the parliament building where Boris Yeltsin (member of parliament and former mayor of Moscow) had his office. The troops refused to attack and abandoned Moscow the next day. Subsequently the formation of the CIS collapsed. Russia has a semi-presidential federal republic government. Their president is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. He has been their president since May 7, 2012. Russia today has a huge monopoly on gas and oil. This is where most of Russia's money comes from and its economy depends on. Rus... half of the document... April 9, 2014."EU and US impose sanctions on Russia over Crimea." - Europe. Np, nd Web. April 29, 2014. Farhi, Paolo. "Did the Sochi Winter Olympics really cost $50 billion? A closer look at that figure." Washington Post. The Washington Post, February 11, 2014. Web. April 29, 2014. "Free Market Definition | Investopedia." Investipedia. Np, nd Web. April 29, 2014. "Defining Inflation | Investopedia." Investipedia. Np, nd Web. April 29, 2014. “Olympics: Go for Gold, Spend in Red.” CNBC.com. Np, nd Web. April 30, 2014."'Russia seeks to create climate of chaos in Ukraine'" Global public square RSS. Np, nd Web. April 29, 2014. "Russia's Olympic abuses | Human Rights Watch." Russia's Olympic abuses | Observatory for human rights. NP, nd Web. April 29, 2014. “US Said to Sanction Seven Russians and 17 Companies.” Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg and Web. April 29. 2014.