RUSSIA AND BELARUS

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Context

Belarus

Location: Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe.
Borders: It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest.
Capital: Minsk is the capital and largest city.

Russia

Location: Russia is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world.
Time Zones: Russia extends across eleven time zones and borders sixteen sovereign nations, the most of any country in the world.
Capital: Moscow.
Physical Features: Caucasus Mountains (containing Mount Elbrus, which at 5,642 m s the highest peak in Russia and Europe); the Altai and Sayan Mountains in Siberia; and in the East Siberian Mountains and the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East (containing Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which at 4,750 m is the highest active volcano in Eurasia). The Ural Mountains, running north to south through the country's west, are rich in mineral resources, and form the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia.
Islands and Archipelago: Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island, the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin. Diomede Islands is administered by Russia and the United States.
Rivers: Lake Baikal - world's deepest, purest, oldest and fresh water lake, containing over one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. Ladoga and Onega islands. The Volga in western Russia, is the longest river in Europe; other rivers are Ob, Yenisey, Lena, and Amur in Siberia.