is an international association of fife countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Initially, the BRIC Group was formed by four of the world’s fastest-growing economies – Brazil, Russia, India, and China. In December 2010 South Africa joined the BRIC Group.

carries out its functions in accordance with the Russian Federation Constitution, the Federal Law on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia), and other federal laws. Under the Russian Constitution the bank’s primary responsibility is to protect and guarantee the stability of the national currency, the ruble. The bank also holds the exclusive right to issue ruble banknotes and coins. It is accountable to the State Duma, which approves the appointment of its chairman, nominated by the President of Russia.

The Bank of Russia holds in its possession, uses and manages the country’s gold and currency reserves and other assets, oversees credit institutions’ activities, and issues and revokes licenses for carrying out banking operations.

The Bank of Russia is an economically independent institution that uses its own revenue to cover its expenses. It is a legal entity whose charter capital and assets are federal property.

Bank of Russia

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation

http://www.cbr.ru/eng/daily.aspx

is the world’s first and largest space launch facility. Located in Kazakhstan, it has an area of 6,717 km². The world’s first man-made satellite (October 4, 1957) and the first manned orbital flight (April 12, 1961) were both launched from Baikonur.

Baikonur is used to launch manned space vehicles, place satellites in geostationary orbit, and put automatic interplanetary stations into orbit. 

It is one of the international space industry’s main centres. To date, around 200 cosmonauts and astronauts, and more than 2,500 space-mission vehicles have taken off from here. Spacecraft flying to the Moon, Mars and Venus have been launched from Baikonur, as were the Salyut and Mir space stations, which orbited the earth. Russian modules of the International Space Station were launched from Baikonur, and the Buran space shuttle vehicle took off and landed in automatic regime here. 

Construction of Baikonur began on January 12, 1955, and the site has been operating as a cosmodrome since 1957. After the breakup of the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, the cosmodrome became part of independent Kazakhstan. Russia uses the site under a rental agreement until 2050.