Russia ranks first among sovereign countries by total area.
Russia covers about 17.1 million square kilometres, stretching across Eastern Europe and northern Asia. It is the only country with territory spanning eleven time zones, and its land reaches from the Baltic and Black seas to the Pacific Ocean.
Canada is second by total area, while China and the United States follow in commonly used global rankings. Rankings can vary slightly when sources treat inland waters differently, but Russia remains decisively first under either total-area or land-area measurements.
Russia’s size includes enormous forests, tundra, mountains, steppes and freshwater systems. Lake Baikal, in Siberia, is the world’s deepest freshwater lake and contains roughly one-fifth of the planet’s unfrozen surface freshwater. The country’s huge area does not mean it has the largest population; India and China each have vastly more people.