International Links: Member of the UN and Commonwealth of Independent States.
Trade: With many countries, including Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, China, France, Finland, and Brazil.
Education: Approximately 7 million students, over 1000 higher education institutions, about 100,000 foreign students, with 4,000 at M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Mass Media: Voice of Russia (in 33 languages), The Moscow Times (English-language daily), Moscow News (English-language weekly), Russia Today (international English-language news channel).
Literature: 5 Nobel Prize winners (I. Bunin, B. Pasternak, M. Sholokhov, A. Solzhenitsyn, I. Brodsky). Notable works include L. Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' and 'War and Peace', F. Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment', and plays by A. Chekhov.
Music: Features renowned composers like M. Glinka and P. Tchaikovsky. Popular operas and ballets staged abroad include 'Swan Lake', 'The Nutcracker', 'War and Peace', 'Romeo and Juliet', and 'Eugene Onegin'.
Science: 15 Nobel Prize winners, numerous world-famous scientific and technological inventions, and significant achievements in space exploration.
Tourism: Attracts 3 million tourists annually. Main attractions include Moscow and St. Petersburg, with globally famous sites like the Hermitage, the Tretyakov Gallery, and the Bolshoi Theatre.