Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm;
Territorial sea: 12 nm
_#_Disputes: bilateral negotiations are under way to resolve disputed sections of the boundary with China; US Government has not recognized the incorporation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania into the Soviet Union; Etorofu, Kunashiri, and Shikotan Islands and the Habomai island group occupied by Soviet Union since 1945, claimed by Japan; maritime dispute with Norway over portion of Barents Sea; has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other nation; Kurdish question among Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and the USSR
_#_Climate: mostly temperate to arctic continental; winters vary from cool along Black Sea to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from hot in southern deserts to cool along Arctic coast
_#_Terrain: broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia, deserts in Central Asia, mountains in south
_#_Natural resources: self-sufficient in oil, natural gas, coal, and strategic minerals (except bauxite, alumina, tantalum, tin, tungsten, fluorspar, and molybdenum), timber, gold, manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, mercury, potash, phosphates; note—the USSR is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas, third in coal
_#_Land use: arable land 10%; permanent crops NEGL%; meadows and pastures 17%; forest and woodland 41%; other 32%; includes irrigated 1%
_#_Environment: despite size and diversity, small percentage of land is arable and much is too far north; some of most fertile land is water deficient or has insufficient growing season; many better climates have poor soils; hot, dry, desiccating sukhovey wind affects south; desertification; continuous permafrost over much of Siberia is a major impediment to development
_#_Note: largest country in world, but unfavorably located in relation to major sea lanes of world
_*People #_Population: 293,047,571 (July 1991), growth rate 0.7% (1991)