Russia

The Russian Federation (Russian: Росси́йская Федера́ция, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya), commonly known as Russia (Russian: Росси́я), is the world's largest federal republic, spanning Europe and Asia. Its capital is Moscow.

From northwest to northeast, it borders Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland (its border with Poland is the Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave surrounded by the Baltic Sea and Lithuania), Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea, and is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the east.

Russia is a neighboring country separated by the sea from Japan, and although an exact figure cannot be given because there are parts of the border that are uncertain between the two countries, the distance between Cape Soya in Wakkanai, Hokkaido, the northernmost point of Japan excluding the Northern Territories, and the southern tip of Sakhalin Island (Karafuto Island) in Sakhalin Oblast is 43 km, making it the country closest to Japan in terms of its territory. (However, the Japanese government takes the position that the southern half of Sakhalin is "territory of undetermined ownership under international law.") Also, from the perspective of effective control, the distance between Cape Nosappu in Nemuro, Hokkaido, and Kaigara Island in the so-called Northern Territories, over which Japan claims sovereignty but which Russia effectively controls, is only 3.7 km.