Country

Russia

Russia is the world's largest country and one of its most vulnerable-feeling. Its historic core sits on the Northern European Plain — a flat corridor that has carried invaders from Napoleon to Hitler — with no ocean-warm port that stays ice-free and unblocked by other nations' straits. Much of Russian foreign policy, from Crimea to the Baltic posture, reads as an attempt to buy distance and depth across indefensible flatland.

58.2°N · 44.7°E