1. Russia’s Natural Resources Carousel Resources

2. Environmental Conditions in Russia In the 1990s, after decades of environmental neglect, the government categorized about 40 percent of Russia's territory (an area about three-quarters as large as the United States) as under high ecological stress. Each of Russia's natural zones has suffered problems of specific kinds. Oil spills, leaks in natural gas pipelines, and the flaring of natural gas destroy ecosystems, In the taiga, or forest, zone, the overcutting of trees poses the greatest threat, particularly in northern European Russia. Urbanization and air and water pollution also are problems.

3. Russian Oil and Natural gas Russia accounts for around 25 percent of the world's production of oil and natural gas and possesses large reserves of both fuels. This abundance has made Russia virtually self-sufficient in energy and a large-scale exporter of fuels.

4. Russian Timber The forests of Siberia contain an estimated one-fifth of the world's timber, mainly conifers. In 1994 about 22 percent of the world's forests and 50 percent of its coniferous forests were in Russia, covering an area larger than the continental United States. Inefficient lumbering procedures cause unnecessary loss of timber; as much as 40 percent of Russia's harvested trees never go to the mill, and unsystematic clear-cutting prevents productive regrowth.

5. Minerals Russia possesses rich reserves of iron ore, manganese, chromium, nickel, platinum, titanium, copper, tin, lead, tungsten, diamonds, phosphates, and gold, The iron ore deposits, close to the Ukrainian border in the southwest, are believed to contain one-sixth of the world's total reserves. Russia also is self-sufficient in nearly all major industrial raw materials and has at least some reserves of every valuable minerals

6. Air Quality Russia's air still rates among the most polluted in the world. According to one estimate, only 15 percent of the urban population breathes air that is not harmful. Most vehicles in Russia continue to burn leaded fuel. In the early 1990s, motor vehicles contributed about one-third of total hazardous emissions in urban and industrial areas.

7. Water Quality In recent years, officials have identified many of Russia's rivers as carriers of waterborne diseases, epidemics of which were especially frequent 75 percent of Russia's surface water is now polluted, 50 percent of all water is not potable according to quality standards An estimated 8 percent of wastewater is fully treated prior to dumping in waterways; most water treatment facilities are obsolete, inefficient, and generally overwhelmed by the volume of material that now passes through them,