BP4 QTR4: Research and Interpretation-Geography

Location:
Area:22400000 square kilometres (8600000 sq mi),
Area-comparative:US  3794083 square miles, Russia is more than twice as big.
Land boundries:20,241.5 km
Climate: is huge, so there is no one climate. in the summer, siberia is a hot, in the winter it is bitterly cold; for example.
Terrian:
Natural resource: The Ural mountains are rich in minerals, and Russia exports a lot of natural gas.
Land Use: much of Russia is unusable for anything but mining or fishing, mining the biggest industry. Mostly other.
Envierment issues:  Russia still has some issues with pollution from chernoble, but also. . .\
Dangerous environmental conditions came to the attention of the public in the Soviet Union under the glasnost policy of the regime of Mikhail S. Gorbachev (in office 1985-91), which liberated the exchange of information in the late 1980s. The three situations that gripped public attention were the April 1986 nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl' Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine, the long-term and ongoing desiccation of the Aral Sea between Uzbekistan and Kazakstan, and the irradiation of northern Kazakstan by the Semipalatinsk (present-day Semey) nuclear testing site. The overall cost of rectifying these three disasters is staggering, dwarfing the cost of cleanups elsewhere, such as the superfund campaign to eliminate toxic waste sites in the United States. By the time the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, such conditions had become symbols of that system's disregard for the quality of the environment.
Since 1990 Russian experts have added to the list the following less spectacular but equally threatening environmental crises: the Dnepropetrovsk-Donets and Kuznets coal-mining and metallurgical centers, which have severely polluted air and water and vast areas of decimated landscape; the Urals industrial region, a strip of manufacturing cities that follows the southern Urals from Perm' in the north to Magnitogorsk near the Kazak border (an area with severe air and water pollution as well as radioactive contamination near the city of Kyshtym); the Kola Peninsula in the far northwest, where nonferrous mining and metallurgical operations, centered on the region's nickel reserves, have created air pollution that drifts westward across northern Scandinavia; the Republic of Kalmykia, where faulty agricultural practices have produced soil erosion, desertification, and chemical contamination; and the Moscow area, which suffers from high levels of industrial and vehicular air pollution and improper disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The experts also named five areas of severe water pollution: the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov north of the Black Sea, the Volga River, and Lake Baikal.
Environmental agreements:

Russia-China agreements on environmental protection and natural resources

Date	Title	Comments
1986-2000	Agreement on development of Amur transboundary water management scheme	Russia and China agreed to establish a special task force to develop a “Comprehensive water development scheme for transboundary waters of the Argun and Amur Rivers. ”. final scheme has been never provuced due to disagreements. Agreement expired in 2000.
1988	Agreement on Cooperation in Fisheries	Cooperation on research, protection and management of fish stocks, development of aquaculture, and improvement of technology.
1994	Agreement on protection, regulation and breeding of bio-resources in transboundary Amur-Heilong and Ussuri-Wusuli Rivers	Protects 25 fishes, two crustaceans, one turtle, one mollusk, three aquatic plants. Regulates size limits for fish, net mesh sizes and lengths, seasonal fishing bans, closure of waters to fishing, and permitted fishing gear.
1994	Agreement on Dauria International Protected Area	Trilateral agreement was signed by China , Mongolia , and Russia to establish Dauria International Protected Area (DIPA) to protect globally important grasslands in the headwaters of the Amur-Heilong basin.
1994	Russia-China Cooperation in Protection of the Natural Environment	Task Force on Environmental Protection should have met annually.
1995	Agreement on joint measures to combat forest fires	Agreement between forestry agencies, that has never resulted in actual cooperation.
1996	Agreement on Khanka/Xingkai Lake International Nature Reserve	The agreement envisioned a broad range of cooperative activities and established a “Mixed Chinese-Russian Commission on Lake Khanka/Xingkai International Nature Reserve”. Commission is yet to be formed, but active cooperation between nature reserves started from 2003.
1997	Memorandum on Tiger Protection	In 1997 a “Memorandum on Tiger Protection” was signed to prevent poaching, smuggling, and trade in tigers and tiger parts but no work program was implemented.
2000	Agreement on Joint Use and Regeneration of Forest Resources	Was intended to regulate Chinese investment in Russia’s forestry industry. The task force created under this agreement should have overseen cooperation on a variety of issues, such as joint logging ventures, investment in Russia’s forestry sector, processing of wood products, forest regeneration, fire control, and pest control. In 2003-2005 many forest resource processing and export agreements were developed under the broad framework of the 2000 agreement, mostly involving provinces, rather than Russian Federal Authorities.
2002	Agreement on cooperative monitoring of water pollution	Trans-boundary agreement between Yevreiskaya Autonomous Region, Khabarovsk and Heilongjiang Provinces to monitor water pollution in the Amur-Heilong River .
2002	Russia-China Treaty on good neighbor relations, friendship and cooperation	Focuses on cooperative development of the border region with protection and improvement of the natural environment and just and equitable management of transboundary rivers.
2003 2006	Task Force on Water Quality in the Argun River Agreement on nature protection of Argun river basin	Chitinskaya Province of Russia agreed with Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to address monitoring and protection of water quality. Later evolved into wider agreement including landscape/biodiversity conservation issues.
2005	Action plan for implementation of the Treaty on good neighbor relations, friendship and cooperation for 2005-2008	Includes all priority cooperation issues. During the 2005 visit by the Russian Minister of Natural Resources to China , joint efforts were proposed to control illegal logging and timber trade (ENA-FLEGT process) under this plan. Development of agreement on transboundary waters also a priority, as well as transboundary nature reserves.
2006	Environmental Sub-commission under the Commission on Regular Meetings of Heads of State	Highest level commission coordinated by MNR in Russia and SEPA in China . Effectively replaced mechanisms set under 1994 environmental agreement. Meets annually.Has three task forces on: • “green issues” – biodiversity, protected areas, ecosystem conservation, etc.; • “pollution prevention and cooperation in case of environmental emergencies;” • “protection of transboundary waters and monitoring of water quality”
2006	Protocol on common approaches to monitoring of transboundary waters	In early 2006 following Songhua spill of 2005 a special protocol on "common approaches to monitoring of transboundary waters" was signed between SEPA and MNR. It calls for the establishment of two working groups for planning and coordinating water quality monitoring in transboundary rivers: Amur-Heilong, Ussuri-Wusuli, Argun and Razdolnaya (Suifen). Coordinates joint monitoring of water quality.
2007	Liaison group on water management issues	Consultation mechanism between MWR of China and Federal Water Resources Agency of Russia. Group formation agreed in principle as a follow-up to Amur water management scheme, but the first meeting held only in August 2007.
2008	Agreement on use and protection of transboundary waters	Proposed by Russia in the 1990s. Actively prepared in 2006-2007. Signed in January 2008.

Natural hazards:  Russia is vunerable to

• earthquakes
• extremes of temperature
• landslides
• floods
• wind storms

BP3 QTR4 General Information

Name: Russia or Russian Federation
Nationality: Russian, falls under "Eastern European"
Languages: Russian, along with over 100 minority languages with no % values for each available.

Flag: no official reasons for the colors, might have been inspired by dutch.
Background: The former soviet union, this now-capitalist country is still sore with the US and not to friendly with China, either.  This country has gone over huge changes (see following article on the Russian revolution for an example) over the last century.  The economy is OK, but copyrights laws could be better, and they remain a large exporter a oil and natural gas.  The Ural mountains contain many valuable resources.  There is a lot of poppy smuggling and they and China disagree on island territories.  They are not as powerful or influential as the US, and have made a lot of enemies, but for now it seems that they are doing fine, aside from 13.6% of the population being under the poverty line.

Sources:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html
https://team8l.wikispaces.com/Model%20UN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia







Follow-up article: A brief Summary of the Russian Revolution and a few events that occurred afterwards.

One hundred years ago, Tsars ruled over all of russia.  They were like kings and popes rolled into one. Then, in 1905, there was unrest. Terrorist attacks, military mutinies, you name it.  They finnally established a constitution in 1906. But the peace did not last. Tweleve years later, the first revolution began.  It was in Febuary, and was centered around what is now St. Petersburg.  In the havoc, the imperial parliment took control, forming the Russian Provisial Goverment.  The army leadeship felt that they could not supress the revoulution, and with Nicholas II abdicated, the RPG came to power.  This also happened during WWI leaving russia in a pretty shabby military condition.  Lots of mutinies.  Then there was a period of Dual power, where the RPG covered the upper classes, while socialists led the lower-class.  This was a chaotic period in which mutinies and strikes were too common for comfort.  This lower-class group, called the Bolshieviks, were against the war, but the RPG wanted to keep fighting.  So the Bolshieviks formed the red guards, which would later be know as the red army.  These militas had substancial control.  In the October revoultion, the Bolshievik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the workers' soviets, overthrew the russians in St.petersburg.  The Bolshieviks made themselves leaders of many goverment ministries and siezed control of the countryside.  They also formed Cheka ( Russian secret sevice ) to mantian security.  In the end, they finished WWI by signing the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the germans in March 1918.