Reasons to move to Russia

1. Russia's economy is booming. President Putin claims his purpose is to restore Russia to greatness at home and among the nations of the world. Near zero unemployment; the unemployment rate is 5.4 percent. In December of 2013, A year ago, unemployment was recorded at 5.3 percent.

2. Education - The literacy rate in Russia, according to the 2002 census, is 99.4%. It is free. Public schools abound and are generally free of charge to anyone living in Russia, including expats.

3. Wide variety of climates.

4. Good jobs are available.

5. Taxes are low at 13 %.

6. President Putin is the most powerful person in the world.

7. Vladimir Putin is a Christian and a true leader.

8. Russia is a true republic like America once was.

9. Putin respects his people.

10. The Black Sea and the Ural Mountains are big vacation resorts.

11. The Trans Siberian Railway is a great attraction; it will be continued on to China.

12. The cost of living is high, but those with good jobs more than make up for it.

13. The railroads are very good; many people commute to the big cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg. The cities have excellent transportation. Example: Since 1861, there has been a railway connection between Vladimir and Moscow. Vladimir is also linked to Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod by the M7 highway. Local transport includes buses, trolleybuses,fixed-route minivans, and taxis.

Vladimir bus service links the city to all the district centers of Vladimir Oblast, as well as Moscow, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Yaroslavl and other cities.
Vladimir daily through the station passes of at least 20 pairs of long-distance trains, 

14. Health care is free even to expats.

15. Abortion is legal and paid for by the state. (not good)

16. The culture is varied and deep.

17. There are 11 major highways outbound from Moscow.

18. There are smaller towns around Moscow, there are many within 50 miles.

19. Russia is over 8,000 miles from east to west; more than double the US.

20. Russia's crime rate is high in the cities (about the same as New York), but low everywhere else.

21. Russia's population is 143.5 million in August of 2013 compared to the US at 360 million. Moscow has 11,414,330 making it the 6th largest in the world; St. Petersburg has 4,848,742; there are 12 cities with over 1 million.

22. The cost of living is lower than the US.



Eleven-year secondary education in Russian is compulsory since September 1, 2007. Russian higher education was traditionally not divided into undergraduate (bachelors) and graduate (masters) levels. Instead, tertiary education was undertaken in a single stage, typically five or six years in duration, which resulted in a specialist degree. Specialist degrees were perceived equal to Western MSc/MA qualification.  dissertation paper should contain a solution of an existing scientific problem, or a practical proposal with significant economic or military potential. The title is often perceived as equivalent to Western PhD, 

24. The unemployment rate is 5.4 percent. In December of 2013, Russian jobless rate increased to 5.6 percent from 5.4 percent in November. A year ago, unemployment was recorded at 5.3 percent.

25. Airline pilots: My recent search has revealed a significant expansion foreseen. The following is a snippet of the stated aircraft orders:
12 A319/A320/A321 family
22 A350
50 B737
16 B777
22 B787

One can only but imagine the quantity of pilots required to fulfill the forthcoming seats in the aircraft. Yes,  Aeroflot has its own aviation school but they are unable to produce the needed number of pilots per year (120 fresh pilot graduates is the current rate). A new terminal D is soon to be opened at Sheremetyovo Airport solely for Aeroflot.
Recently there have been statements that the airline is willing to open its doors to foreign pilots. The changes in laws are still required though to allow this to happen. Initially I believe one had to be a Russian citizen (and of course know the Russian language). Maybe now those requirements are not necessary.
The package seems to be promising too: up to 10,000 Eur a month, 70 days a year vacation (paid naturally), good pension plans, family benefits and so on.

26. The climate of Vladimir, just east of Moscow, is much like that of Salt Lake City; summer high 76, summer low 53, winter high 22, winter low 12, there are great differences in the north and south.

27. Topography 
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. 

The Russian Arctic stretches for close to 7,000 kilometers (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.

The fishing and port industries of the northwestern Kola Peninsula and the huge oil and gas fields of northwestern Siberia are the largest employers in the tundra. With a population of 180,000, the industrial frontier city of Norilsk is second in population to Murmansk among Russia's settlements above the Arctic Circle. From here you can also see the auroras (northern lights).

World deserts
Within the taiga are widespread fur-bearing animals - sable, marten, ermine, moose, brown bear, wolverine, wolf, and muskrat. Russian Taiga has the world's largest reserves of coniferous wood, but from year to year - as a result of intensive logging - they decrease. Development of hunting, farming (mainly in river valleys). A birch forest in Novosibirsk. Birch is a national tree of Russia.

Steppe
The steppe has long been depicted as the typical Russian landscape. It is a broad band of treeless, grassy plains, interrupted by mountain ranges, extending from Hungary across Ukraine, southern Russia, and Kazakhstan before ending in Manchuria. 

Topography
Russia's mountain ranges are located principally along its continental dip (the Ural Mountains), along the southwestern border (the Caucasus), along the border with Mongolia (the eastern and western Sayan Mountains and the western extremity of the Altay Mountains), and in eastern Siberia (a complex system of ranges in the northeastern corner of the country and forming the spine of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and lesser mountains extending along the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan). Russia has nine major mountain ranges. In general, the eastern half of the country is much more mountainous than the western half, the interior of which is dominated by low plains. 

Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains form the natural boundary between Europe and Asia; the range extends about 2,100 kilometers (1,300 mi) from the Arctic Ocean to the northern border of Kazakhstan. Several low passes provide major transportation routes through the Urals eastward from Europe. The highest peak, Mount Narodnaya, is 1,894 meters (6,214 ft). The Urals also contain valuable deposits of minerals.

West Siberian plain
To the east of the Urals is the West Siberian Plain, stretching about 6,000 kilometers from west to east and about 670 kilometers from north to south. With more than half its territory below 200 meters in elevation, the plain contains some of the world's largest swamps and floodplains. Most of the plain's population lives in the drier section south of 77 north latitude.

Sayan and Stanovoy Mountains
There is an elevation difference of more than 4,500 meters between the nearest mountain, 2,840 meters high, and the deepest part of the lake, which is 1,700 meters below sea level.  meters.

Caucasus mountains
Truly alpine terrain appears in the southern mountain ranges. Between the Black and Caspian seas, the Caucasus Mountains rise to impressive heights, forming a boundary between Europe and Asia. One of the peaks, Mount Elbrus, is the highest point in Europe, at 5,642 meters. 

Northeast Siberia and Kamchatka Northeastern Siberia, north of the Stanovoy Range, is an extremely mountainous region. The long Kamchatka Peninsula, which juts southward into the Sea of Okhotsk, includes many volcanic peaks, some of which still are active. The highest is the 4,750-meter Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the highest point in the Russian Far East. 

Russia has thousands of rivers and inland bodies of water, providing it with one of the world's largest surface-water resources. However, most of Russia's rivers and streams belong to the Arctic drainage basin, which lies mainly in Siberia but also includes part of European Russia. 

Forty of Russia's rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers are east of the Urals, including the three major rivers that drain Siberia as they flow northward to the Arctic Ocean
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.

The most prominent of Russia's bodies of fresh water is Lake Baikal, the world's deepest and most capacious fresh water lake. Lake Baikal alone holds 85% of the freshwater resources of the lakes in Russia and 20% of the world's total.