Global position and boundaries[edit]

Russia on the globe

Kaliningrad Oblast, westernmost part of Russia along the Baltic Sea, is about 9,000 km

(5,600 mi) apart from its easternmost part, Big Diomede Island in the Bering Strait.[4] This
distance spans about 6,800 kilometres (4,200 mi), to Nome, Alaska.[clarification needed] From north to
south, the country ranges from the northern tip of the Russian Arctic islands at Franz Josef
Land to the southern tip of the Republic of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea, spanning about 4,500
kilometres (2,800 mi) of extremely varied, often inhospitable terrain.
Extending for 57,792 kilometres (35,910 mi), the Russian border is the world's longest. Along the
20,139-kilometre land frontier, Russia has boundaries with 14
countries: Poland and Lithuania (both via Kaliningrad
Oblast), Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, C
hina, Mongolia, and North Korea.
Approximately two-thirds of the frontier is bounded by seawater. Virtually all of the lengthy
northern coast is well above the Arctic Circle; except for the port of Murmansk—which receives
currents that are somewhat warmer than would be expected at that latitude, due to the effects of
the Gulf Stream—that coast is locked in ice much of the year. Thirteen seas and parts of two
oceans—the Arctic and Pacific—wash Russian shores. It is separated by close sea, making it
a maritime boundary. It also shares one with Japan.