This chapter provides all basic political, economic, and demographic data on a territorial unit of the Russian Federation, the republic of Karelia, which is located in European Russia’s northwest and borders Finland and Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Leningrad, and Murmansk oblasts. In the 9th century, the territory of modern Karelia was part of Kievan Rus. During the 11th and 12th centuries, the area was part of the Novgorod Republic. The region is rich in mineral resources, including iron ores, granite, marble, and various metals. Karelian Prime Minister Sergei Leonidovich Katanandov, an ethnic Russian who was elected to office on 17 May 1998 at the age of 43, is Karelia’s youngest leader since revolutionary times. The Moscow city government expressed a strong interest in working with Karelia’s precious stone extraction and processing industry. Karelia lacks the funds to modernize the plant itself. But the Swedes shut down production at the plant in March 1997.