The Russian Far East is Russia’s Pacific "empire" and stretches from the Arctic to Southeast Asia. Since 1639, after a band of Cossacks led by Ivan Moskvitin reached the Okhotsk Sea of the Pacific Ocean, it became and has remained Russia’s border for trade and military defense in the Asia-Pacific. The border in the north is defined by only a few kilometers between the Little (USA) and Big (Russia) Diomede Islands, and with Japan and China in the south along the Ussuri, Amur and Argun River system, with a tiny stretch with North Korea on the very southern tip. Due to remoteness, a predominantly mountainous landscape, mix of thick subtropical and endless Siberian taiga with climates ranging from Arctic winds to Mongolian heat, the region remains one of the least explored and inhabitant lands of Russia. |
The Russian Far East is full of many unique natural wonders. Among them are the volcanoes and the magnificent Geyser Valley of Kamchatka, the largest cat of all cats in the world – Amur Tiger, ginseng, and the rare Japanese Crane. More than one hundred species of flowering plants, such as the arctic poppy and snow buttercup, are still found in the Arctic wilderness. Some plants are very small, such as the dwarf willow and partridge grass. In winter you will see polar bears and foxes. In summer, huge bird colonies gather on the cliffs of many unexplored areas of Kamchatka and Kuril Islands, some of which were opened very recently to civilian visitors after their lengthy military conservation. www.sras.org
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