<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> <P> desert tundra alpine tundra taiga forest temperate broadleaf forest temperate steppe steppe </P> <P> The East European Plain encompasses most of European Russia . The West Siberian Plain, which is the world's largest, extends east from the Urals to the Yenisei River . Because the terrain and vegetation are relatively uniform in each of the natural zones, Russia presents an illusion of uniformity . Nevertheless, Russian territory contains all the major vegetation zones of the world except a tropical rain forest . </P> <P> The Russian Arctic stretches for close to 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) west to east, from Karelia and the Kola Peninsula to Nenetsia, the Gulf of Ob, the Taymyr Peninsula and the Chukchi Peninsula (Kolyma, Anadyr River, Cape Dezhnev). Russian islands and archipelagos in the Arctic Sea include Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands . </P>

The part of russia east of the ural mountains is known as