The Globalist

How the United States ended up with one of the highest numbers of time zones for a single country.

The world’s largest country has 11 time zones across its hemispheric span.

No longer a prime meridian country, the former empire still reigns with a dozen time zones.

A steep decline from one of the biggest spenders after several bumpy years in global politics.

Being the largest country by land area helps keep Russia one of the world’s big breadbowl economies.

Russia has abundant natural resources, but is also highly dependent on them.

On a per capita basis, Russia trails only neighboring Belarus in cigarette consumption.

Russia is home to a million more immigrants than its large emigrant diaspora.

Only the United States sells more arms than Russia.

The two countries have very similar land areas for now, but China has extensive additional claims.