Political situation - Sucks. That's all I have to say about that. I am thinking we might have a consitution of some sort, I am not sure though.

Business oportunities - These are many and things are getting better. In January 98 Russia was recognised as a country with marketing economy. Beware of mafia though.

Military Service - painful subject. Every male is expected to serve in the military for two years. I have been excused from the military service until year 2000. I really hope they make it voluntary by then.

Culture, language, population, nationalities - There are so many different nationalities that are native to Russia that I can't even name them all. It's a common misconception that the Russian Federation is mostly populated by Russians. Russians are native to a relatively small part of the land. It stretches from St.Petersburg in the north to Krasnodar in the South with Moscow lost somewhere in between. The rest of the land is covered by all kinds of nationalities that speak all kinds of funky languages.

Here's a tale of how Russia came to be. Once upon a time there was a clan of Vikings in Norway and they called themselves Russ. They got bored of Norwegian life. All the fjords were already taken up by someone else, all the neighboring villages like Britain and France had been plundered and burnt, well boring is boring. So one day they decided they didn't want to stay there any more and under the leadership of their head dude Rurik they steered their drakkar ships towards the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. With little effort they thrust their swords in between the Finnish and Saami people up north and some silly Slavic idol worshippers down south. There they started their Russ kingdom with Ruriks being the first in the royal genealogy. Names like Oleg and Olga are actually Scandinavian. Here is something funny. When I was little they taught us in school that Rurik came with two brothers Sineus and Truvor. Now it turns out they were no brothers. The name Sineus is a misspelled "sine hus" i.e. his household. Truvor ain't no brother either, it means that Rurik came with "those who were t r u e to him". In other words the so called "brothers" are simply his family and friends.

Nature and Geography - The nature of the Russian Federation is really different depending where you go. After all, it's the largest country in the entire world! If you drive for about three hours north of St.Petersburg you will come to Karjala where people speak a language which resembles Finnish. This part of the country is my favorite. It's a land of thousands of lakes. Great place for canoing and fishing! The nature there is truly northern. All the way down to the Black Sea the landscape is pretty much flat. When you start traveling east the first mountains you come across are the Ural mountains. After that you come to Siberia - a vast area of unknown resources and untrodden paths. If you're out to discover, that's the place to go. Just gon't get lost. The easternmost part of the country is Kamchatka which borders with Japan and Alaska. This place is really awesome. Lots of cool volcanoes.