The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

Geographical location
The Republic of Sakha is situated in the north of the Eastern Siberia, in the basin of the rivers the Lena, the Yana and the Indigirka. Length of the territory from north to south is about 2,000 km, from west to east is 2,100 km. The republic borders on Amur region in the south, on Khabarovsk region in the south-east, on Magadan region and Chukotsky autonomous okrug in the east, on Dolgano-Nenetsky autonomous okrug in the north-west, on Evenkyisky autonomous okrug in the west and on Irkutsk region in the south-west. The republic is washed by the Laptev`s Sea in the north. More than 40% of the territory of the republic is located beyond the Polar Circle. In the republic there are about 0.5 million rivers. There are more than 700 thousand lakes. The largest rivers are the Lena, the Kolyma, the Indigirka.
About 80% of the republic is in zone of taiga. Forests occupy 138 million hectares. The climate is sharp continental. Winter is long, severe. Summer is short and warm.
Depths of the republic is rich in mineral resources: diamonds, gold, coal, gas, ferrous, nonferrous and rare metals.

Administrative division
The republic is divided into 32 districts, 3 towns of the republican submission, 7 towns of district submission, 67 town settlements, 316 villages.
Capital of the republic is the town of Yakutsk. It was founded in 1632. Distance to Moscow is 8,468 km.

 Economics
Sakha is an industrial and agricultural republic with a developed fuel power engineering and mining industries. In the republic there are 5 economic districts: Southern - district of gold-mining, mica, coal, forest, wood-working industries, ferrous metallurgy; Western - centre of diamond-mining and power engineering; Central - gas-mining and agricultural district; North-Eastern - district of gold-, tin-, and coal-mining; North-Western - agricultural district, deer-farming.
Exports: fuel power engineering resources, mineral raw materials, furs, precious stones.
Imports: consumer goods, machines and equipment, building materials, food products, metals.