Is Russia a Superpower
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Russia has vast territory covering over 17 million square kilometers, but its geography presents both opportunities and challenges for its economy. While the land provides natural resources, much of Russia's area is sparsely populated due to harsh climates and long distances between cities in the west and resources in the east. However, climate change may help Russia's economy by opening new land and sea lanes for trade and resource extraction.
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Is Russia a Superpower
- 1. Russia Is Russia still a superpower?
- 3. Is Russia a superpower?
- 6. How does the geography of Russia affect its status as a superpower?
- 7. TASK • 7 minutes - label the countries surrounding Russia using an atlas • Stick in Russia fact file. • One might expect that with so much land, you should have the resources to compete economically on the global stage
- 11. Is Russia’s geography a blessing or a curse? In which part of Russia are the majority of its cities? Identify two reasons why much of Russia is sparsely populated? In one or two sentences, explain why this might be an issue for the country. Describe the distribution of Russia’s natural resources. Russia is the world’s largest country covering just over 17 million square kilometres. Why might this be considered a curse rather than a blessing? How might climate change help Russia’s economy? What new industries are emerging as a result of the changes?
- 12. What is this man doing?
- 15. Every year, clandestine crews of men head to the region to look for hidden treasure: the tusks of woolly mammoths that lie frozen in the permafrost. It’s dirty, backbreaking work. They sleep in makeshift tents, live off canned beef, noodles and vodka, and operate illegally, ripping the mammoth remains from the earth with a level of brute force never seen before. They sell the mammoth tusks at great profit, creating a new ‘gold rush’ – not in precious metals, but in body parts.
- 16. TASK Does the country’s geography help or hinder the Russian economy? • State your argument (e.g. you think it helps or hinders the economy of Russia) • Two (perhaps three) points supporting the argument. • One point acknowledging a counterpoint. • Overall conclusion – consider how this might change in the future…
Editor's Notes
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43581449 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/19/global-battle-power-putin-trump-Syria https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/330129-is-russia-superpower News headlines perhaps suggest that Russia is having a greater influence on the world stage as part of a new multipolar world.
- Our previous work on evaluating the power of countries suggests that Russia might not be a major global power. Although it might be strong militarily, its economic, political and cultural status suggest that it is a smaller power than it perhaps projects. Russia’s economic power is, in part, influenced by its geography.
- Watch the Vox film, and note down some of the evidence mentioned in the film.
- Groups are given resources looking at climate, resources and farming, population density and transport. Give an appropriate time for the task. Students stick in resource page and then answer questions in their books. Plenary – run through the answers to these questions using the answer below. Ask students to add additional material to their answers as you go through. West Climate (limits agriculture) and relief (Ural mountains block access to major markets) Distributed across Russia, but some key resources concentrated in northern Russia and Siberia Even though this gives great resource wealth and opportunity for agriculture, it is hugely expensive and time-consuming to transport these resources long distances to markets in the west. Resources in the north might become more accessible (e.g. melting permafrost), transport goods more easily throughout the year as winters become shorter, melting sea ice in the north might open up arctic ports in the north all-year-round.
- Differentiation Give some students a side to argument (i.e. it hinders the Russian economy). Use sentence starters for each paragraph
- EXTENSION VIDEO It is complex but develops the idea of Russia’s geopolitical issues and how its has influenced Russia’s actions in the past.