The Russian Federation is a huge country, ranking first in the world in terms of area. The states bordering Russia are located on all sides of the world, and the border itself reaches almost 61 thousand km.
Types of borders
The border of a state is a line that limits its actual area. Territory includes tracts of land, water, underground minerals, and airspace within a country.
There are 3 types of borders in the Russian Federation: sea, land and lake (river). The sea border is the longest of all, it reaches about 39 thousand km. The land border is 14.5 thousand km long, and the lake (river) border is 7.7 thousand km.
General information about all states bordering the Russian Federation
With which states does Russia border? The Russian Federation recognizes its neighborhood with 18 countries.
Name of states bordering Russia: South Ossetia, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Abkhazia, Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Estonia,Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, United States of America, Japan, Mongolia, People's Republic of China, DPRK. The first order countries are listed here.
Capitals of states bordering Russia: Tskhinvali, Minsk, Sukhum, Kyiv, Warsaw, Oslo, Helsinki, Tallinn, Vilnius, Riga, Astana, Tbilisi, Baku, Washington, Tokyo, Ulaanbaatar, Beijing, Pyongyang.
South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia are partially recognized, because not all countries of the world have recognized these countries as independent. Russia did this in relation to these states, therefore, approved the neighborhood with them and the borders.
Some states bordering Russia argue about the correctness of these borders. For the most part, disagreements appeared after the end of the existence of the USSR.
Land borders of the Russian Federation
The states bordering Russia by land are located on the Eurasian continent. They also include lake (river). Not all of them are guarded today, some of them can be crossed without hindrance, having only a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, which is not always checked without fail.
States bordering Russia on the mainland: Norway, Finland, Belarus, South Ossetia, Ukraine, Republic of Abkhazia, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, People's Republic of China, North Korea.
There is also a water border with some of them.
There are Russian territories that from all sidessurrounded by foreign countries. These areas include the Kaliningrad region, Medvezhye-Sankovo and Dubki.
You can travel to the Republic of Belarus without a passport and any border control on any of the possible roads.
Marine borders of the Russian Federation
With which countries does Russia border by sea? A maritime boundary is a line 22 km or 12 nautical miles from the coast. The territory of the country includes not only 22 km of water, but also all the islands in this sea area.
States bordering Russia by sea: Japan, United States of America, Norway, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, North Korea. There are only 12 of them. The length of the borders is more than 38 thousand km. Russia has only a maritime border with the USA and Japan; the dividing line with these countries does not pass by land. There are borders with other states both by water and by land.
Disputed border sections settled
At all times there have been disputes between countries over territories. Some of the disputing countries have already agreed and are no longer raising the issue. These include: Latvia, Estonia, People's Republic of China and Azerbaijan.
The dispute between the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan occurred because of the hydroelectric complex and water intake facilities that belonged to Azerbaijan, but were in fact in Russia. In 2010, the dispute was resolved, and the border was moved tothe center of this hydroelectric complex. Now the countries use the water resources of this hydroelectric complex in equal shares.
After the collapse of the USSR, Estonia considered it unfair that the right bank of the Narva River, Ivangorod and the Pechora region remained the property of Russia (Pskov region). In 2014, the countries signed an agreement on the absence of territorial claims. The border did not suffer any noticeable changes.
Latvia, like Estonia, began to claim one of the districts of the Pskov region - Pytalovsky. The agreement with this state was signed in 2007. The territory remained in the ownership of the Russian Federation, the border did not suffer any changes.
The dispute between China and Russia ended with the demarcation of the border in the center of the Amur, which led to the annexation of part of the disputed territories to the People's Republic of China. The Russian Federation transferred 337 square kilometers to its southern neighbor, including two plots near Bolshoi Ussuriysky and Tarabarov Islands and one plot near Bolshoy Island. The agreement was signed in 2005.
Unresolved disputed sections of the border
Some disputes over the territory are not closed to this day. It is not yet known when the contracts will be signed. Russia has such disputes with Japan and Ukraine.
The disputed territory between Ukraine and the Russian Federation is the Crimean peninsula. Ukraine considers the 2014 referendum illegal and Crimea occupied. The Russian Federation fixed its border unilaterally, while Ukraine issued a law oncreation of a free economic zone on the peninsula.
The dispute between Russia and Japan is over the four Kuril Islands. The countries cannot come to a compromise, because both believe that these islands should belong to her. These islands include Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai.
Borders of the exclusive economic zones of the Russian Federation
The exclusive economic zone is a strip of water adjacent to the border of the territorial sea. It cannot be wider than 370 km. In this zone, the country has the right to develop the subsoil, as well as to explore and preserve it, to create artificial structures and use them, to study the water and the bottom.
Other countries have the right to move freely through this territory, build pipelines and otherwise use this water, while they must take into account the laws of the coastal state. Russia has such zones in the Black, Chukchi, Azov, Okhotsk, Japanese, B altic, Bering and Barents Seas.
