Russia is a state vast in territory. Boundaries pass both by land and by sea. I would like to recall in detail who borders on Russia, because so many states are our neighbors.
Length
It’s quite difficult for Russian border guards to work to protect state borders, because the total length of the country's borders (do not be surprised!) Is more than 62 thousand kilometers. It should be noted that the land border is shorter than the sea border and amounts to 24,625 km. Maritime lines, respectively, stretched for 37736 km.
Which countries does Russia border by sea?
So, let us first consider the maritime frontier of our country, which protects the navy from intruders and saboteurs. In the north, the Russian border (with some exceptions) completely passes through the waters of the Arctic Ocean, affects the Baltic Sea. Who does Russia border on in the north? In the Barents Sea you can sail from Arkhangelsk to the Norwegian island of Svalbard. The northern coast of Russia is also washed by the Kara, East Siberian, Chukchi seas, the Laptev Sea. Shipping along them is very difficult, but this does not create any particular inconvenience in communication between the countries, since here only a formal border passes with the North Pole.
The Baltic Sea, although it is relatively small, provides a sea route from Russia to Sweden, Poland, the Baltic countries, and Finland.
Marine eastern border
In the east, unlike the northern borders, the seas do not freeze, therefore, sea trade with neighbors is very active. And who borders Russia on the Bering, Okhotsk and Japanese seas? Powerful economically developed states: USA and Japan. It is with these partners that maritime trade in this region is mainly carried out. The border with Japan is 149 kilometers long, and with the United States only 49 kilometers. From the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, you can reach the port of Sapporo (Hokkaido Island, Japan) through the relatively small Strait of Laperuza.
On this section of the border, Russia has a territorial conflict, that is, it is impossible to talk about a full legally formed border. It is about the fate of the Kuril Islands (Japan also claims to be). This debate has been going on since 1945, when the USSR defeated Japan in the Soviet-Japanese war. As such, a peace treaty was not concluded at the end of World War II, so this territorial issue remains to be resolved.
Western land border of Russia
The states bordering Russia in the west are mainly former union republics. The longest part of the border on this site is Ukrainian. It is about 2245 kilometers. On the Russian side, Ukraine is adjoined by the territories of the Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Rostov regions, as well as the Krasnodar Territory. What areas of Ukraine border on Russia? There are many such regions, namely: Lugansk, Kharkov, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kiev regions. In connection with the well-known events in the territory of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, problems arose again, because control over the border with the Lugansk region of Ukraine became more complicated.
The border with Belarus in its length is 2 times less than the Ukrainian section, and amounts to 1239 kilometers in numerical terms. If you specify by region, then from the Russian side you can enter the territory of Union Belarus from the lands of the Bryansk, Tver, Pskov, Smolensk regions.
In the northwest there is a land border with Latvia (270 km.) And Estonia (466 km.).The uniqueness of this part is that getting from the Kaliningrad region to the territory of other regions of Russia by land is possible only through the Schengen countries (the Baltic countries already have a visa-free regime with Europe, as they are EU members).
Asia: who borders Russia by land?
The only Asian land neighbors of Russia from Asia became huge in size, but different in population density states: Mongolia and China. This part of the land border is very long, because the junction with the territory of China lasts 4209 km., And with Mongolia - 3485 km.
You can enter China from the following regions of the Russian Federation: Altai Republic, Chita, Amur, Khabarovsk Regions, Jewish Autonomous Oblast and Primorsky Territory. If you are traveling to Russia from Mongolia, your path can go through the republics of Altai, Tuva, Buryatia, as well as through the Chita region.
Russia has probably the largest land border with Kazakhstan. This Republic has always been associated with the Asian world, but recently this axiom has become questioned, because the national team and club teams of this country take part in European cup tournaments. Therefore, the border with Kazakhstan is most likely European. By the way, the Russian Federation has very close economic ties with this state within the framework of the Customs Union, therefore, the movement of vehicles at checkpoints is very active.
But that’s not all!
Which states does Russia border on land in the north? It was said above that the northern part of Russia is mainly cold seas. But there are also land sections of the border with the Scandinavian countries. For example, the total section of the border with Finland is 1325 km., And with Norway - 219 km.
The southern neighbors of the Russian Federation are the former components of the USSR: Georgia and Azerbaijan. It is problematic to protect the inviolability of Russian territory from encroachments from the lands of these states because of the geographical features of the mountainous terrain of the Caucasus.
In this article, we examined who borders on Russia. The advantageous geographical position of our country on the world political map is underlined by two points:
- The Russian Federation is at the junction of two continents: Europe and Asia.
- There are common borders with more than 10 states.
