The marked territories on this global map from the United Nations are mostly of countries which are sovereign states with full international recognition (brackets denote the country of a marked territory that is not a sovereign state). Some territories are countries in their own right but are not recognized as such (e.g. Taiwan ), some few marked territories are disputed about which country they belong to (e.g. Kashmir ) or if they are countries in their own right (e.g. Western Sahara (territory) or the state known by the same name ). A country world , such as a state , nation , or other political entity . When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state , state with limited recognition , constituent country , or dependent territory . A country may consist of multiple nations, a structure known as a multinational state . Countries are often distinguished as developing countries or developed countries .
There is no universal agreement on the number of "countries" in the world. This ambiguity is a result of several countries not being recognized as sovereign states by the UN system, but are recognized by at least one UN member, known as "diplomatic recognition '. These countries often have disputed territories and have only partial recognition . A number of entities without recognition are also commonly considered a country.
Areas other than a political entity may be referred to as a "country," such as the West Country in England, "big sky country" (used in various contexts of the American West ), "coal country" (used to describe coal-mining regions ), cottage country or simply "the country" (used to describe a rural area ). The term "country" is also used as a qualifier descriptively, such as country music or country living .
The definition and usage of the word "country" has fluctuated and changed over time. The Economist Full article...
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards. The Philippines Republic of the Philippines , is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia . Located in the western Pacific Ocean , it consists of about 7,641 islands , with a total area of about 300,000 square kilometers, which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon , Visayas , and Mindanao . With a population of over 114 million, it is the world's twelfth-most-populous country .
The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. It has diverse ethnicities and a rich culture . Manila is the country's capital , and its most populated city is Quezon City . Both are within Metro Manila . (Full article...
A country code top-level domain ccTLD ) is an internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country , sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code . All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.
In 2018, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) began implementing internationalized country code top-level domains , consisting of language-native characters when displayed in an end-user application. Creation and delegation of ccTLDs is described in RFC 1591, corresponding to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes . While gTLDs have to obey international regulations, ccTLDs are subjected to requirements that are determined by each country’s domain name regulation corporation. With over 150 million domain name registrations today or as of 2022, ccTLDs make up about 40% of the total domain name industry. (Full article...
The following are images from various country-related articles on Wikipedia.
Remaining countries not listed in the Recognized articles section at left are displayed here.
Liberia Republic of Liberia , is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest , Guinea to its north , Ivory Coast to its east , and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It has a population of around 5.5 million and covers an area of 43,000 square miles (111,369 km2 ). The official language is English , though over 20 indigenous languages are spoken, reflecting the country's ethnic and cultural diversity. The capital and largest city is Monrovia .
Liberia began in the early 19th century as a project of the American Colonization Society (ACS), which fomented the emigration of Black Americans from the United States to Africa . Between 1822 and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, more than 15,000 freed and free-born African Americans , along with 3,198 Afro-Caribbeans , relocated to Liberia. Gradually developing an Americo-Liberian identity, the settlers carried their culture and tradition with them while colonizing the indigenous population. Led by the Americo-Liberians, Liberia declared independence on July 26, 1847, which the U.S. did not recognize until February 5, 1862. (Full article...
Top 10 WikiProject Countries Popular articles of the month
Image 1 The
United States of America (
USA ), also known as the
United States (
U.S. ) or
America , is a country primarily located in
North America . It is a
federal republic consisting of 50
states and a
federal capital district ,
Washington, D.C. The 48
contiguous states border
Canada to the north and
Mexico to the south, with the
semi-exclave of
Alaska in the northwest and the
archipelago of
Hawaii in the
Pacific Ocean . The United States also asserts sovereignty over five
major island territories and
various uninhabited islands in
Oceania and the
Caribbean . It is a
megadiverse country , with the world's
third-largest land area and
third-largest population , exceeding 341 million.
Paleo-Indians first migrated from North Asia to North America at least 15,000 years ago, and formed various civilizations.
European discovery of the Americas began in 1492, and
British colonization followed with the 1607 settlement of
Virginia , the first of the
Thirteen Colonies . The
American Enlightenment that spread throughout the colonies in the 18th century valued
republicanism and
liberalism . Clashes with the
British Crown over
taxation without parliamentary representation and the denial of other
English rights evolved into the
American Revolution , which led to the July 2, 1776,
Lee Resolution formally declaring independence from Great Britain. Two days later, on the
Fourth of July , the
Declaration of Independence was adopted and publicly released. Victory in the 1775–1783
Revolutionary War brought
international recognition of the country's sovereignty .
The U.S. rapidly
expanded its territory westward by purchasing, settling and conquering various areas controlled by Europeans and Indigenous peoples. As more states were
admitted into the Union , a North–South
division over slavery led 11 Southern states to
declare secession and join as the
Confederate States of America in order to
preserve slavery there . These states fought against the
Union in the
American Civil War of 1861–1865 and were defeated. With the United States' victory and reunification, slavery was
abolished nationally . (
Full article... )
Image 2 The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , commonly known as the
United Kingdom (
UK ) or
Britain , is a country in
northwestern Europe , off the coast of
the continental mainland . It comprises
England ,
Scotland ,
Wales and
Northern Ireland , with a population of over 69 million in 2024. The UK includes the island of
Great Britain , the north-eastern part of the island of
Ireland , and most of
the smaller islands within the
British Isles , covering 94,354 square miles (244,376 km
2 ). It shares
a land border with the
Republic of Ireland and is surrounded by the
Atlantic Ocean , the
North Sea , the
English Channel , the
Celtic Sea and the
Irish Sea , while maintaining sovereignty over the
Crown Dependencies and the
British Overseas Territories . The capital and largest city of England and the UK is
London ;
Edinburgh ,
Cardiff and
Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively.
The British Isles have been continuously inhabited since the
Neolithic . In AD 43 the
Roman conquest of Britain began. The
Roman departure between 383 and 410 was followed by
Anglo-Saxon settlement beginning around 450. In 1066 the
Normans conquered England . Over the 17th century the role of the
British monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of the
English Civil War . In 1707 the Kingdom of England and the
Kingdom of Scotland united under the
Treaty of Union to create the
Kingdom of Great Britain . The
Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the
Kingdom of Ireland to create the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland
seceded from the UK in 1922 as the
Irish Free State , and the
Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom.
The UK
became the first industrialised country and was the world's
foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the
Pax Britannica between 1815 and 1914. The
British Empire was the leading
economic power for most of the 19th century, a position supported by
its agricultural prosperity , its role as a dominant
trading nation , a massive industrial capacity,
significant technological achievements , and the rise of
19th-century London as the world's principal financial centre. At its height in the 1920s, the empire encompassed around a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was the
largest in history . However,
its involvement in the First World War and
in the Second World War damaged
Britain's economic power , and a global wave of
decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. (
Full article... )
Image 3 India , officially the
Republic of India , is a country in
South Asia . It is the
seventh-largest country by area , the
most populous country in the world and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by the
Indian Ocean on the south, the
Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the
Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with
Pakistan to the west;
China ,
Nepal and
Bhutan to the north;
Bangladesh and
Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is near
Sri Lanka and the
Maldives . Its
Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a
maritime border with Myanmar,
Thailand and
Indonesia .
Modern humans arrived on the
Indian subcontinent from
Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, predominantly in isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse.
Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the
Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the
Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE. By 1200
BCE , an
archaic form of
Sanskrit , an
Indo-European language , had
diffused into India from the northwest.
Its hymns recorded the
early dawnings of
Hinduism in India. India's pre-existing
Dravidian languages were supplanted in the northern regions. By 400
BCE ,
caste had emerged within Hinduism, and
Buddhism and
Jainism had arisen, proclaiming
social orders unlinked to heredity. Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit
Maurya and
Gupta Empires . During this era, there was a flourishing of creativity in art, architecture, and writing, the status of women declined, and
untouchability became an organised belief. In
South India , the
Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian language scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of
Southeast Asia .
In the
1st millennium Islam ,
Christianity ,
Judaism , and
Zoroastrianism became established on India's southern and western coasts. Early in the
2nd millennium Muslim armies from
Central Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains. The resulting
Delhi Sultanate drew northern India into the cosmopolitan
networks of medieval Islam . In south India, the
Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite Hindu culture. In the
Punjab ,
Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalised religion. The
Mughal Empire ushered in two centuries of economic expansion and relative peace, and left
a rich architectural legacy . Gradually expanding
rule of the British East India Company turned India into a colonial economy but consolidated its
sovereignty .
British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly, but
technological changes were introduced, and modern ideas of education and the public life took root.
A nationalist movement emerged in India, the first in the non-European
British Empire and an influence on other nationalist movements. Noted for nonviolent resistance after 1920, it became the primary factor in ending British rule. In 1947, the British Indian Empire was
partitioned into two independent
dominions , a Hindu-majority
dominion of India and a Muslim-majority
dominion of Pakistan . A large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration accompanied the partition. (
Full article... )
Image 4 China , officially the
People's Republic of China (
PRC ), is a country in
East Asia . It is the
world's second-most populous country after India, with
a population exceeding 1.4 billion (17% of the world's population), across an area of 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), making it the
third-largest country by area . It is divided into 33
province-level divisions , including two
special administrative regions .
Beijing is the capital, while
Shanghai is the
most populous city by urban area . Its geography features the vast
Central Plain , major rivers such as the
Yangtze and
Yellow River , deserts,
subtropical and temperate forests, plateaus, and
mountain ranges such as the
Himalayas .
Humans first arrived in China during the
Paleolithic . By the 2nd millennium BCE,
dynastic states had emerged. The 1st millennium BCE saw political turmoil and cultural growth. In 221 BCE, China was unified under the
Qin and the succeeding
Han dynasty , ushering in two millennia of imperial rule across periods of unity and division. Its achievements include the
Silk Road and the invention of
gunpowder ,
paper ,
printing , and the
compass . After increased Western political, economic, and philosophical influence, the
1911 Revolution overthrew the empire and established the
Republic of China (ROC). The
Warlord Era and
Chinese Civil War followed, interrupted by
Japan 's
invasion . This ended in a Chinese victory in 1945. In 1949, the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
proclaimed the PRC and forced the
ROC's retreat to
Taiwan .
Both sides claim political legitimacy. CCP attempts to advance
communism faltered through famine and political turmoil. The
reform and opening up that began in 1978 moved China towards a
socialist market economy , spurring economic growth.
The PRC is a
unitary state with the CCP as its
sole ruling party . It is one of the five
permanent members of the
UN Security Council and a member of
many multilateral organizations . China is the world's largest
manufacturer and makes up about one-fifth of the global economy. It is the
second largest economy on Earth. International organizations have criticized the PRC, alleging authoritarianism and
human rights abuses . Possessing a
large military and
nuclear stockpile , China has been described as a
superpower due to its influence in geopolitics,
science and technology ,
manufacturing ,
economics and
culture . (
Full article... )
Image 5 Taiwan , officially the
Republic of China (
ROC ), is a country in
East Asia . The main
island of Taiwan , also known as
Formosa , lies between the
East and
South China Seas in the northwestern
Pacific Ocean , with the
People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest,
Japan to the northeast, and the
Philippines to the south. It has an area of 35,808 square kilometers (13,826 square miles), with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its
highly urbanized population is concentrated. The combined
territories under ROC control consist of
168 islands in total covering 36,193 square kilometers (13,974 square miles). The
largest metropolitan area is formed by
Taipei (the capital),
New Taipei City , and
Keelung . With around 23.9 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the
most densely populated countries .
Taiwan has been settled for at least 25,000 years. Ancestors of
Taiwanese indigenous peoples settled the island around 6,000 years ago. In the 17th century, large-scale
Han Chinese immigration began under
Dutch colonial rule and continued under the
Kingdom of Tungning , the first predominantly Han Chinese state in
Taiwanese history . The island was
annexed in 1683 by the
Qing dynasty and
ceded to the
Empire of Japan in 1895. The
Republic of China , which had
overthrown the Qing in 1912 under the leadership of
Sun Yat-sen , assumed control following the
surrender of Japan in
World War II . With the loss of
mainland China to the
Communists in the
Chinese Civil War , the
government of the Republic of China moved to Taiwan in 1949 under the
Kuomintang (KMT).
From the early 1960s, Taiwan saw rapid economic growth and industrialization known as the "
Taiwan Miracle ". In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ROC transitioned from a
one-party state under
martial law to a
multi-party democracy , with democratically elected presidents beginning in
1996 . Taiwan's
export-oriented economy is the
21st-largest in the world by nominal GDP and the
20th-largest by PPP measures, with a focus on steel, machinery, electronics, and chemicals manufacturing. Taiwan is a
developed country . It is ranked highly in terms of
civil liberties ,
healthcare , and
human development . (
Full article... )
Image 6 Gross domestic product (GDP) is the
market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. Countries are sorted by nominal GDP estimates from financial and statistical institutions, which are calculated at market or government official
exchange rates . Nominal GDP does not take into account differences in the
cost of living in different countries, and the results can vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country's
currency . Such fluctuations may change a country's ranking from one year to the next, even though they often make little or no difference in the standard of living of its population.
Comparisons of national wealth are also frequently made based on
purchasing power parity (PPP), to adjust for differences in the cost of living in different countries. Other metrics,
nominal GDP per capita and a corresponding
GDP (PPP) per capita , are used for comparing national
standard of living . On the whole, PPP per capita figures are less spread than nominal GDP per capita figures.
The rankings of national economies have changed significantly over time. For instance, the United States overtook the British Empire around 1916; Japan rose rapidly in the post-World War II period to become the world’s second-largest economy by the 1970s; China moved from ninth place in 1978 to second in 2010 following market reforms. These shifts reflect long-term changes in global economic output. (
Full article... )
Image 7 Israel , officially the
State of Israel , is a country in the
Southern Levant region of
West Asia . It is
bordered by
Lebanon to the north,
Syria to the northeast,
Jordan to the east, and
Egypt to the southwest.
Israel's western coast lies on the
Mediterranean Sea , its southern tip reaches the
Red Sea , and to the east is
Earth's lowest point near the
Dead Sea .
Jerusalem is the government seat and
proclaimed capital , while
Tel Aviv is Israel's
largest urban area and
economic centre .
The
Land of Israel , also called
Palestine or the
Holy Land , was home to the ancient
Canaanites and later the kingdoms of
Israel and Judah and
Hasmonean Judea . Located near
continental crossroads , its
demographics shifted under various empires. 19th-century
European antisemitism fuelled the
Zionist movement for a
Jewish homeland , which gained
British support with the 1917
Balfour Declaration . After
World War I , Britain occupied the region and established
Mandatory Palestine . British rule and
Jewish immigration in the leadup to
the Holocaust intensified
Arab-Jewish tensions , which escalated into
a civil war after the 1947
United Nations (UN)
Partition Plan .
Israel
declared independence as the
British Mandate ended on 14 May 1948, followed by an
invasion by
Arab states . The
1949 armistice expanded Israel beyond the UN plan, while no new Arab state was created, leaving
Gaza under Egyptian control and the
West Bank ruled by Jordan . Most
Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled during the
Nakba , while Israeli independence prompted
antisemitism in the Arab world and
Jewish exodus therefrom , mainly to Israel. After the 1967
Six-Day War , Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and Egyptian
Sinai , and annexed
East Jerusalem and the Syrian
Golan Heights . Peace treaties were signed with
Egypt in 1979 (the Sinai being returned in 1982) and
Jordan in 1994. The 1993
Oslo Accords introduced limited
Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza, while the 2020
Abraham Accords normalised ties with more Arab states, but the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict persists. Israeli
occupation of the Palestinian territories has drawn international criticism, with experts calling its actions
war crimes and crimes against humanity. After the
Hamas -led
October 7 attacks , Israel began committing
genocide against Palestinians in Gaza . Israel and its allies, including the
United States ,
deny that Israel's actions constitute genocide. (
Full article... )
Image 8 Japan is an
island country in
East Asia . Located in the
Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the
Asian mainland , it is bordered to the west by the
Sea of Japan and extends from the
Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the
East China Sea in the south. The
Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside
14,121 smaller islands . Japan is divided into
47 administrative prefectures and
eight traditional regions , and around 75% of
its terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating
its agriculture and
highly urbanized population along its eastern
coastal plains . With a population of almost 123 million as of 2026, it is the world's
11th most populous country .
Tokyo is
the country's capital and
largest city .
The first known habitation of the
archipelago dates to the
Upper Paleolithic , with the beginning of the
Japanese Paleolithic dating to
c. 36,000 BC . Between the 4th and 6th centuries, its kingdoms were united under
an emperor in
Nara and later in
Heian-kyō . From the 12th century, actual power was held by military aristocrats known as
shōgun and feudal lords called
daimyō , enforced by warrior nobility named
samurai . After rule by the
Kamakura and
Ashikaga shogunates and
a century of warring states , Japan was unified in 1600 by the
Tokugawa shogunate , which implemented
an isolationist foreign policy . In 1853,
an American fleet forced Japan to
open trade to the West , which led to the
end of the shogunate and the
restoration of imperial power in 1868.
The
Meiji period saw Japan pursue rapid
industrialization ,
modernization ,
militarism , and
overseas colonization . Declaring itself an
imperial power in 1889 with the promulgation of the
Meiji Constitution , it
annexed Taiwan in 1895, followed by
Korea in 1910. In 1937, Japan
invaded China and
attacked the U.S. and
European colonial powers in 1941, thus
entering World War II as an
Axis power . After being defeated in the
Pacific War and suffering the U.S.
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , Japan
surrendered in 1945 and
came under Allied occupation . It underwent
rapid economic growth in the following decades and became one of the first
major non-NATO allies of the U.S. Since the collapse of the
Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s, it has experienced a prolonged period of
economic stagnation referred to as the
Lost Decades . (
Full article... )
Image 9 Iran , officially the
Islamic Republic of Iran , historically known as
Persia , is a country in
West Asia . It borders
Iraq to the west,
Turkey ,
Azerbaijan , and
Armenia to the northwest, the
Caspian Sea to the north,
Turkmenistan to the northeast,
Afghanistan to the east,
Pakistan to the southeast, and the
Gulf of Oman and the
Persian Gulf to the south. With a population of over 92 million, Iran ranks 17th globally in both
geographic size and
population . It is divided into
five regions with
31 provinces .
Tehran is the nation's
capital and
largest city and serves as its primary economic centre.
Home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, the territory of present-day Iran was first unified under the
Medes in the 7th century BC and reached its territorial height in the 6th century BC, when
Cyrus the Great founded the
Achaemenid Empire .
Alexander the Great conquered the empire in the 4th century BC. An Iranian rebellion in the 3rd century BC established the
Parthian Empire , which later liberated the country. In the 3rd century AD, the Parthians were succeeded by the
Sasanian Empire , which oversaw a golden age in the
history of Iranian civilization . Ancient Iran saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanization, religion, and administration. Once a center for
Zoroastrianism , Iran underwent
Islamization following the
7th century Muslim conquest . Innovations in
literature ,
philosophy , mathematics,
medicine , astronomy and
art were renewed during the
Islamic Golden Age and
Iranian Intermezzo , a period during which
Iranian Muslim dynasties ended Arab rule and revived the
Persian language . This era was followed by
Seljuk and
Khwarazmian rule,
Mongol conquests and the
Timurid Renaissance from the 11th to 14th centuries.
In the 16th century, the native
Safavid dynasty re-established a unified Iranian state with
Twelver Shia Islam as the
official religion , laying the framework for the modern state of Iran. During the
Afsharid Empire in the 18th century, Iran was a leading world power, but it lost this status after the
Qajars took power in the 1790s. The early 20th century saw the
Persian Constitutional Revolution and the establishment of the
Pahlavi dynasty by
Reza Shah , who ousted the last Qajar Shah in 1925. Following the
Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941 , his son
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi rose to power. Attempts by
Mohammad Mosaddegh to
nationalize the oil industry led to the
Anglo-American coup in 1953 . The
Iranian Revolution in 1979 overthrew the monarchy, and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established by
Ruhollah Khomeini , the country's first
supreme leader . In 1980,
Iraq invaded Iran , sparking the eight-year-long
Iran–Iraq War . Iran has since been involved in
proxy wars with
Israel and
Saudi Arabia ; in 2025, Israeli strikes on Iran escalated tensions into the
Twelve-Day War . Following the war and amid a
growing economic crisis , the
largest protests since 1979 erupted in 2025. The
United States and
Israel launched a
war with Iran in 2026, after they
assassinated supreme leader
Ali Khamenei . His son,
Mojtaba Khamenei , was subsequently
elected as his successor. (
Full article... )
Image 10 Russia , or the
Russian Federation , is a country in
Eastern Europe and
North Asia . It is the
largest country in the world , spanning
eleven time zones and sharing
land borders with fourteen countries . With a population of over 140 million, Russia is the
most populous country in Europe and the
ninth-most populous in the world . It is a
highly urbanised country, with sixteen of its urban areas having more than 1 million inhabitants.
Moscow , the
most populous metropolitan area in Europe , is the capital and
largest city of Russia , while
Saint Petersburg is its second-largest city and
a major cultural centre .
Human settlement on modern Russian territory dates back to the
Lower Paleolithic . The emergence of the East Slavs as a prominent group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD led to the establishment of
Kievan Rus' in the 9th century, which adopted
Orthodox Christianity from the
Byzantine Empire in 988. Following its disintegration, the late medieval
Grand Principality of Moscow led the
unification of Russian lands , culminating in the formation of the
Tsardom of Russia in 1547. By the early 18th century, Russia had expanded vastly through
conquest , annexation, and the
efforts of Russian explorers . It was proclaimed as the
Russian Empire in 1721, which became the
third-largest empire in history. The
Russian Revolution of 1917 led to
the abolition of the
Russian monarchy and the creation of the
Russian SFSR , the first
socialist state . Following the
Russian Civil War , Russia became the
largest and principal constituent of the newly established
Soviet Union in 1922. Amidst
rapid industrialisation in the 1930s,
millions died under
Joseph Stalin . The Soviet Union played
a decisive role for the
Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the
Eastern Front . During the
Cold War , it emerged as a
superpower and competed with the
United States for
ideological dominance . The Soviet era saw some of the most significant
Russian technological achievements , including the
first human-made satellite and the
first human expedition into outer space .
In 1991, the Russian SFSR emerged from the
dissolution of the Soviet Union as the Russian Federation. Following
a constitutional crisis in 1993,
a new constitution was adopted, establishing a
semi-presidential republic . Since 1999, Russia's
political system has been dominated by
Vladimir Putin , under
whose leadership it has experienced
democratic backsliding , transforming into an
authoritarian regime . Russia
has been militarily involved in
numerous conflicts , including
its war with Georgia in 2008 and
its war with Ukraine since 2014, which in the latter has involved the internationally unrecognised
annexation of Crimea in 2014 and
four additional regions following the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , resulting in a
full-scale war . (
Full article... )
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