Despite the disintegration of its former empire, Russia is still a huge country.

European Russia spreads approximately 3,260 km (2,020 mi) from Murmansk on the Barents Sea across the Central Russian Uplands to the Apsheron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea in the south. From Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea and the borders with Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Turkey in the west, the Russian Federation spreads eastward to the Ural Mountains, running south to north from Russia's border with Kazakhstan to the coastal lowlands and tundra on the shores of the Kara Sea.

After crossing the Urals, the Russian landscape pushes further east across the broad expanse of the Siberian Plains into Asia, passing the borders with Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China. Here, in the Far East, Russia meets the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. From Kaliningrad in the west to Naukan on the shores of the Bering Sea in the east, the Russian Federation stretches across 5,980 km (3,715 mi) of the earth's surface.

European Russia, which occupies about one-fourth of the entire country, is a series of broad plains broken only by gently rolling low hills west of Ural Mountains. Numerous forests of spruce birch, and pine trees cover this landscape cut by rivers and interspersed with lakes, bogs, and large expanses of swamp.

The Northern European Plain extends deep into northern Russia, bounded on the west by the coastal lowlands of the Baltic Plains and on the northeast by the Timan Ridge and the Upper Kama Uplands. To the south lies the Central Russian Upland, which rises between Pinsk Marshes and the Dnieper Lowland to the west and the Oka-Don Plain and the Volga Upland to the east. Southeast of the central uplands, across the Donets Basin and the Yergeni Hills, are two of Russia's topographic extremes:  the towering ragged peaks of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea at 92 feet below sea level.

West of the Urals, Russia's forests end at about 65°N Latitude, replaced by areas of tundra and marshland that extend all the way to the northern coast, including the desolate Malozemel'skaya Tundra and, further northeast in the Pechora Basin, the gigantic Bol'shezemel'skaya Tundra.

Western Russia is a land of rivers, both great and small, and virtually all of Russia's great cities developed along a river;  Moscow on the Moskva and Neglina Rivers, St. Petersburg and Novogrod on the Volhov River, Kiev on the Dnieper River, Rostov on the Don River, and Stalingrad on the banks of Russia's mightiest waterway, the Volga River.

The Volga River is not only the longest river in Europe (3,700 km / 2,300 mi), but it is navigable for virtually its entire length. Originating in the Valdai Hils northwest of Moscow, the Volga flows eastward then turns south, eventually emptying into the Caspian Sea at Astrakhan, producing an extensive river delta to rival that of the Mississippi River delta below New Orleans. On its journey to the sea, the Volga River fills four massive reservoirs along its course:  Rybinsk, Gorky, Kuybyshev, and the lengthy Volgogrod Reservoir.

Rising to a height of less than 1,600 m (5,250 ft), the Ural Mountains mark the natural demarcation between European Russia and Siberia, often referred to as Russia's Far East. Mt. Konzhakovskiy Kamen at 1,569 m (5,148 ft) is the highest point in the Urals. The northern half of Siberia extends from the Urals across the West Siberian Plain to the Yenisey River Basin. Further west, the land rises to the Central Siberian Plateau between the Yenisey and the Lena River Basin. The land is covered by the great Siberian taiga, dense forests of mixed deciduous and coniferous trees such as birch, larch, spruce and pines.

East of the Lena River the land suddenly rises to the peaks of the Verkhoyansk Range with peaks extending upwards over 2,100 m (6,900 ft). These mountains extend southeastward into the Dzhugdzhur, Suntar, and Kulyma Ranges, coastal mountains that border the Sea of Okhotsk and stretch northward to the coastal lowlands of the Arctic Ocean. From the Kara Sea in the west to the Bering Sea in the east, northern Siberia is a continuous series of coastal lowlands, tundra, marshes, and offshore islands.

Across southern Siberia, where the vast evergreen forests extend toward Mongolia, the terrain becomes much more mountainous and varied. Along the border between Siberia and Mongolia, there is a natural geologic divide, where rugged hills and mountains have formed a complex of wrinkles between the sprawling forests to the north and the rolling grasslands of the Mongolian Plateau. About midway along this border region sits Lake Baikal , the Pearl of Siberia, a gigantic stone bowl nearly 604 km (375 mi) long and about 75 km (47 mi) wide containing approximately one-fourth of all the fresh water on earth .

West to east, this region includes the Sayan Ranges bordering western Mongolia, the Yablonovy Range, which extends from Mongolia northeastward above Manchuria, and the Stanovoy Range, which stretches east to the Sea of Okhotsk. East of the Ussuri and Amur River basins, the Sikhote Alin Range runs parallel to the coast of the Sea of Japan opposite Sakhalin Island.

The Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Siberia is one of the most active and violent landscapes along the Pacific Ring of Fire. Two major volcanic ranges lie in a north, north-eastern line:  the Central Range,which extends nearly the full length of the peninsula, and the Korya Range, which continues northeastward onto the Chukchi Peninsula. More than one hundred volcanoes are located on this landmass, including the 4,750 m (15,584 ft) Mt. Kliuchevskoi, one of the most active and reknowned volcanoes in the world. Many of the 65 active volcanoes in this area erupt explosively, producing ash plumes that drift into the airways used by aircraft traveling from Alaska to Japan.