Independent Republic of SAKHA-IAKOUTIA [see map]

President : Viatcheslav Anatollevich Chtyrov, 51 years old, director of Alrosa, one of the most important diamond extractions companies in the world.

The Independent Republic of Sakha – Iakoutia is one of the biggest republics of Russia (1/5 of the territory). The country is 2500 km long from north to south and has 3 time zones (Moscow +6, +7, +8). 40% of the territory is located beyond the Polar Circle. Geographically linked to East Siberia, it is economically tied up with the Russian Far East.

Climate
Continental climate with a long and very cold winter (-70°) and a hot and short summer. Iakoutia is covered by permafrost (soil iced as far as 1500 meters deep in the west). The soil thaws only one to two meters in summer.

Geography
Iakoutia is full of lakes and rivers that flow into the arctic sea: the Lena river (4 400 km), the Kolyma river (2129 km), the Indighirka river (1726 km), etc. The countryside is a mixture of mountains (Mount Pobeda: 3147 m) and plains.

Wildlife and flora
A natural phenomenon of condensation allows the vegetation to grow when the soil thaws. It becomes tundra in the north and taiga in the south. Without the very fragile phenomenon, this part of the world would be an iced desert. The wildlife and flora represent a very important and great number of different species, sometimes endangered species. Trees, plants, mushrooms, ferns, lichens, flowers make the taiga very colorful. The orange lily called Saardana and the snowdrop called Niourgouhoune are both symbols of beauty and youth. They are very common feminine names. We can find many animals, such as bears, reindeers, wolves, ermines, sables but also more than 250 species of birds, fishes and insects, big flail for animals and humans.

Population
In Iakoutia, there are more than one million inhabitants and 80 ethnic groups. The main ones are Russian, Ukrainians, Sakkha or Iakoutsks, Tatars, Youkaghirs, Evens etc… 2/3 of the population lives in the cities (11 cities, 67 market towns and 319 villages). The main cities are Iakoutsk (the capital: 250 000 inhabitants) – Nerioungri (76 000 inhabitants) – Mirny (38 000 inhabitants) – Lensk (30 000 inhabitants) etc…

Economy
The Iakoutia is very rich in raw material (80% of the Russian potential): gold, diamond, oil, coal (50% of the worldwide stock), building materials and mineral water. They live also of trees exploitation, reindeers, and livestock in the south and fishing in the north.

The very hard climate makes the roads very difficult to build, sometimes it is even impossible. In summer, transportation by boat is very developed on the Lena River. People usually travel by plane. Roads and railways link Iakoutsk to the railway stations of the BAM train (Baikal-Amour) and to the Trans-Siberian train. Other roads, more or less in good condition, link Iakoutsk to the other towns of the area like Magadan with the sadly called « road of the bones » or the Kolyma road. .