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In total, the border of the Russian Federation stretches for 60,9 thousand km. More than 180 border guards carry out border service in this vast area.
Not all of Russia’s borders are finally formalized by international treaties. Territorial disputes with Ukraine, the South Caucasus and in the Baltic zone are still ongoing.
Let’s see how the longest land borders of Russia developed.
10 Lithuania (288,4 km)
After the Great Patriotic War was established border between the RSFSR and the Republic of Lithuania. The border of East Prussia, established in 1923 by joining the Klaipeda (Memel) region to Lithuania, was adopted as the basic landmarks.
In 1939, Germany again annexed the territory of East Prussia. After 1945, the border returned to its former place and became internal (intra-union).
In 1997, an agreement was signed that eliminated some of the absurdities of the border. For example, there was no longer a boundary division of water bodies. It is this agreement, since 2003, that determines the territorial delimitation of the states of the Republic of Lithuania and the Russian Federation. At present, the length of the border is 288,4 km.
9. Azerbaijan (350 km)
Speaking of Russian-Azerbaijani border, we should not forget that Dagestan, which is a subject of the Russian Federation, borders directly on Azerbaijan. The total length of the border (including the sea section) is about 350 km.
Modern fiducial points were not smoothly coordinated at all. The current state is determined by an agreement that entered into force in 2011. A big problem in relations between peoples was that, due to the natural relief, many natural resources have to be used jointly. These are motor roads (first of all, passes), and water resources. The issue of division of the Samur river basin was very acute.
8. Estonia (467 km)
The border treaty between the countries was signed in 2014. But it has not yet entered into full force. The agreement specifically states that territorial disputes are finally resolved and to the mutual satisfaction of the parties.
The border, with a total length of about 470 km, has been the subject of regular disputes since 1991. Estonia believed that she had rights to part of the Pskov region and Ivangorod.
In 2005, the parties tried to agree on the recognition of the borders within the framework of the administrative division of the USSR – but the Estonian side made such significant amendments to the draft agreement that the document would not have been signed by Russia.
7. Georgia (480 km)
The Georgian Democratic Republic proclaimed its state building in 1918, one hundred years after the beginning of the annexation of certain Caucasian kingdoms and principalities to the Russian Empire. Not surprisingly, 1920 RSFSR and Georgia officially recognized each other’s state status.
The intra-union border between the Georgian SSR and the RSFSR existed from 1922 to 1991. Moreover, in the period 1944 to 1958, the territory of Georgia expanded due to the annexation of the territories of Karachay-Cherkessia and Chechnya.
After the collapse of the USSR, territorial disputes and border conflicts immediately began between the republics (including the self-proclaimed ones) of the South Caucasus.
After the military conflict in 2008, the border between the Russian Federation and Georgia was significantly reduced. If before the conflict its length was almost 900 km, now it consists of two sections with a total length of 480 km (moreover, 180 km of them are still the subject of controversy).
6. Belarus (1239 km)
Oddly enough, the border with this completely “fraternal Slavic state” has not yet been finally determined. Moreover, a very formal status leads to the fact that it actually exists in the form of separate checkpoints and customs points. In the intervals between the checkpoints, there is no border, as such, and pedestrian crossings are not limited in any way.
The conditional line passing through the control points and formally coinciding with the former intra-Union border within the USSR has a length of about 1240 km. Its location on the map was established in 1993 by a decree of the Supreme Council of the Republic Belarus.
In 2017, the Russian Federation restored the need for customs control at the checkpoint, which was legally abolished in 1995.
5. Finland (1325,8 km)
One of the oldest state borders of the Russian Empire (and since 1991 the Russian Federation). Even in the XIV century. (1323) the Orekhovets peace treaty was signed, which determined the eastern border of Sweden with the Moscow Kingdom. The peace agreement of 1595 extended the land border to adjacent maritime territories.
Finland as an independent state, it was allocated only in 1809, thus inheriting the eastern border with a length (at that time) of 1323 km. Moreover, Finland became part of the Russian Empire and until 1917 the border was internal, without any special border control.
In 1940 (after the Soviet-Finnish war), the border between the USSR and Finland was somewhat shifted; the next change in the line was secured by the Paris Treaty of 1947 following the results of World War II. Now its length (including offshore sections) is 1325,8 km.
4. Ukraine (2245,8 km)
Before the events of 2014 (the annexation of Crimea to Russia) border with Ukraine had a length of 2295 km. It ran along the historical (since 1954) border between the Ukrainian SSR and the RSFSR from north to south from the junction of three borders (Belarus, the RSFSR and Ukraine) to the Kerch Strait.
After the annexation of Crimea, an additional section of the border with the Russian Federation was formed 735 km long (of which only 8,6 km pass by land). Now the total length of all border sections is about 2246 km.
3. Mongolia (3484,85 km)
One of our longest borders. Of the total length of 3485 km, about 2880 km are land. It passes mainly through hard-to-reach and sparsely populated areas and consists of sections of demarcation between Mongolia, Tyva, the Trans-Baikal Territory, Buryatia and the Altai Republic.
Historically, it was the border between the Russian and Qing Empires. But in 1911 Mongolia declared independence from North China and negotiated its own peace treaties.
The specifics of the border areas (especially the traditional way of life of the population) leads to the fact that the main headache of the border guards is drug smuggling and regular mutual cattle thefts.
2. China (4209,3 km)
In its modern form border between Russia and China took shape only in 2005. Now its length is 4209 km, and only 650 km pass by land. The rest is laid along the fairways of border rivers and lake basins.
Russian-Chinese relations have always been tense. Historically (beginning with the conquest of Siberia), Russia constantly claimed the territory of Central Asia, and China included modern Mongolia. In 1932, due to the creation of a puppet pro-Japanese government in Manchuria, China completely lost its land border with the RSFSR.
It reappeared only in 1948 (after the return of Inner Manchuria to China). Beginning in 1953, China constantly made territorial claims to the USSR. It even came to open military conflicts.
1. Kazakhstan (7598,6 km)
The longest of the continuous sections of the state border of the Russian Federation. Historically, it completely took shape in its present outlines back in 1933-34. in the form of borders between the Kazakh SSR and the RSFSR and has a length of almost 7600 km, of which 5936 km pass by land.
In 2015 the government Kazakhstan offered the Russian Federation a mutual exchange of certain territories. At the same time, it was noted that the territories are not the subject of a dispute, and the essence of the exchange is only in increasing the economic efficiency of individual farms. It is not surprising, because the same nationalities and nationalities live on both sides of the border.