Russia and its Neighbors
By: Anna Tipling
Defining the Region & Distinctive Physical Geography
Russia is much larger than its neighboring countries, and most of the boundaries between Russia and its neighbors are political boundaries. Russia and its neighbors might be different in size but they are about the same in climate. Russia is cold pretty much everywhere. It is a lot colder near the top of Russia than the rest of the country because it is closer to the North Pole, and since it is so cold there pretty much nothing grows there. All of the other countries near Russia have a cold climate as well, but not as cold as some parts. Since Russia's climate is cold there are't really any deserts, but there are some prairies. Russia also has some grasslands and large forest areas. Most of the people that live in Russia live in grasslands and smaller forest areas. The landscapes throughout Russia and its neighbors are made up of mountains in the Eastern and Southeastern parts. Russia is also pretty much split in two from another mountain range, and since Russia has so many mountain ranges the elevation in the country varies depending on where you are. Other than mountains Russia and it's neighbors also plains. Most of the plains in this area of the world in the western part of Russia, but of the plains are in Russia's neighboring countries.
There are many different types of resources in Russia. In the northeastern part of Russia there is a lot of coal. So that means that live there, their main job is probably working with coal. In the south western part of Russia there is a lot of commercial farming so that means that most of the people who live there, which is where most of the population lives, are farmers. There is little activity in the middle of Russia just because not many people live there so not a lot of the land is being used.
Distinctive Human Geography
The Russian Federation and the neighboring countries were once the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union broke up many of the people who lived in the neighboring countries of Russia were ethnic Russia's. Since so much of the other countries population was made up of ethnic Russians, Russia want the ethnic Russians to be apart of Russia. This caused a lot of problems. For example in Crimea most of the ethnic Russians didn't want to be apart of Russia so they started to protest. When they protested Russia started to fight back, which caused people to die, get injured, and many other things. So having ethnic Russians in other countries causes a lot of problems with Russia.
Geographic Diversity
The Russian Federation and it neighbors have many things that are similar. Both Russia and the neighboring countries population's are made up of ethnic Russians. All of the countries including Russia have become independent from one another. Russia and the neighboring countries don't really have a very goo economy.
Russia and its neighbors also have some differences. One difference is that Russia has a good supply of oil, natural gas, and water, while some of the neighboring countries are dependent on Russia for some of those things because they don't have very much.
Contemporary Geographic Issues
Russia might take over some of its neighboring countries because they want the ethnic Russians to be a part of Russia. Russia may become too controlling in the oil and natural gas industry and cause problems with other countries. It is important to understand these issues because it would impact the rest of the world because Russia might start to try to become even more controlling not just to its neighboring countries, but to the rest of world. Americans might have problems in the future with Russia trying to be to controlling. Which is not good.