<P> Russia shares a maritime boundary with the United States and with Japan . </P> <P> With a few changes of status, most of the Soviet - era administrative and territorial divisions of the Russian Republic were retained in constituting the Russian Federation . As of 2014, there are eighty - five administrative territorial divisions (called federal subjects): twenty - two republics, nine krais (territories), forty - six oblasts (provinces), one autonomous oblast, four autonomous okrugs, and three cities with federal status, namely the cities of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Sevastopol . </P> <P> The republics include a wide variety of peoples, including northern Europeans, Tatars, Caucasus peoples, and indigenous Siberians . The largest federal subjects are in Siberia . Located in east - central Siberia, the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) is the largest federal subject in the country (and the largest country subdivision in the world), twice the size of Alaska . Second in size is Krasnoyarsk Krai, located west of Sakha in Siberia . Kaliningrad Oblast, which is a noncontiguous constituent entity of Russia, is the smallest oblast . The Republic of Ingushetia is both the smallest republic and the smallest federal subject of Russia except for the three federal cities . The two most populous federal subjects, Moscow Oblast (with Moscow) and Krasnodar Krai, are in European Russia . </P> <P> Geographers traditionally divide the vast territory of Russia into five natural zones: the tundra zone; the taiga, or forest, zone; the steppe, or plains, zone; the arid zone; and the mountain zone . Most of Russia consists of two plains (the East European Plain and the West Siberian Plain), two lowlands (the North Siberian and the Kolyma, in far northeastern Siberia), two plateaus (the Central Siberian Plateau and the Lena Plateau to its east), and a series of mountainous areas mainly concentrated in the extreme northeast or extending intermittently along the southern border . </P>

Where is most of russia's territory located