<P> Russia's inland bodies of water are chiefly a legacy of extensive glaciation . In European Russia, the largest lakes are Ladoga and Onega northeast of Saint Petersburg, Lake Peipus on the Estonian border, and the Rybinsk Reservoir north of Moscow . Smaller man - made reservoirs, 160 to 320 kilometers long, are on the Don, the Kama, and the Volga rivers . Many large reservoirs also have been constructed on the Siberian rivers; the Bratsk Reservoir northwest of Lake Baikal is one of the world's largest . </P> <P> The most prominent of Russia's bodies of fresh water is Lake Baikal, the world's deepest and most capacious freshwater lake . Lake Baikal alone holds 85% of the freshwater resources of the lakes in Russia and 20% of the world's total . It extends 632 kilometers in length and 59 kilometers across at its widest point . Its maximum depth is 1,713 meters . Numerous smaller lakes dot the northern regions of the European and Siberian plains . The largest of these are lakes Belozero, Topozero, Vygozero, and Ilmen in the European northwest and Lake Chany in southwestern Siberia . </P> <P> Russia has a largely continental climate because of its sheer size and compact configuration . Most of its land is more than 400 kilometers (250 mi) from the sea, and the centre is 3,840 kilometers (2,386 mi) from the sea . In addition, Russia's mountain ranges, predominantly to the south and the east, block moderating temperatures from the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but European Russian and northern Siberia lack such topographic protection from the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans . </P> <P> Because only small parts of Russia are south of 50 ° north latitude and more than half of the country is north of 60 ° north latitude, extensive regions experience six months of snow cover over subsoil that is permanently frozen to depths as far as several hundred meters . The average yearly temperature of nearly all of Siberia is below freezing, and the average for most of European Russia is between 5 and 0 ° C (41 and 32 ° F). Most of Russia has only two seasons, summer and winter, with very short intervals of moderation between them . Transportation routes, including entire railroad lines, are redirected in winter to traverse rock - solid waterways and lakes . Some areas constitute important exceptions to this description, however: the moderate maritime climate of Kaliningrad Oblast on the Baltic Sea is similar to that of the American Northwest; the Russian Far East, under the influence of the Pacific Ocean, has a monsoonal climate that reverses the direction of wind in summer and winter, sharply differentiating temperatures; and a narrow, subtropical band of territory provides Russia's most popular summer resort area on the Black Sea . </P>

The russian realm is largely dominated by what climate zone