Beijing is ready! With only a couple of weeks to go before the Winter Olympics, top international athletes have already gathered here in Beijing. Fans in China and around the world are holding their breath, especially in Russia, where a bumper crop of medals is as always widely expected. Oleg Vasilyevich Matytsin, minister of sport for the Russian Federation, talks about Russia’s preparations for these Games and looks at Russia-China cooperation in winter sports.
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This story is an English language news item from CGTN. CGTN is a Chinese state-funded broadcaster.
Beijing, China’s sprawling capital, has history stretching back 3 millennia. Yet it’s known as much for modern architecture as its ancient sites such as the grand Forbidden City complex, the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
China is the third largest country in the world by area and the largest country in the world by population. Properly known as the People’s Republic of China, the political territory of the country includes Tibet and Hong Kong. The capital is Beijing.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.
Russia spans more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. Moscow is the country’s capital.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and since 1993 Russia been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia is a major great power, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. As a recognised nuclear-weapon state, the country possesses the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.