Russia is a state.
Russia ( [ ˈrʌʃə ] [ Россия , Rossiya , rɐˈsʲijə ] ) , also officially the Russian Federation ( [ Российская Федерация , r = Rossiyskaya Federatsiya , p = rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə ] ) , is a country in Eurasia . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern ; about 77 % of the population live in European Russia . Following the Russian Revolution , the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , the world 's first constitutionally socialist state . Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 , fifteen independent republics emerged from the USSR : Russia , Ukraine , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , Armenia , Azerbaijan , Estonia , Georgia , Kyrgyzstan , Latvia , Lithuania , Moldova , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan ; the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognized as the continuing legal personality and sole successor state of the Soviet Union . The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction .