Talk:Geography of Russia
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[edit] Partial Source
Some of the info in Geography of Russia appears to have been copied from The World Factbook published by the CIA of the US government. That document is in the public domain, per Can I use...
Copyvio checkers: note that some of the information has been copied onto other sites, some of which (like WP!) don't indicate that they are not the source or that the material is PD. --Jerzy 23:02, 2003 Dec 16 (UTC)
[edit] Factbook
The Factbook page suggests that you are to cite the CIA World Factbook if used.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.65.49.138 (talk • contribs) .
- The Factbook is referenced in the "References" section.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 12:17, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Non sequitur?
Does anybody know what this sentence from the fourth paragraph mean?
- New neighbors are eight countries of the near abroad—Kazakhstan in Asia, and, in Europe, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.
I'd like to fix it, but I'm not sure what it's trying to say. Unschool 21:29, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
- The meaning of this is that while these countries used to be parts of the Soviet Union, they are now considered foreign countries bordering Russia. Not the best way to say it, for sure, but definitely not a non sequitur :) "Near abroad" is a calque from Russian "ближнее зарубежье", and I think that's an acceptable term in English (I don't know any other one to describe the same concept).—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 22:02, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
- Thanks! I've got it now. Unschool 22:10, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Grammar issues
In reading the following sentence,
It was here, roughly between the Dnieper River and the Ural Mountains, that the Russian Empire took shape after the principality of Kaliningrad Oblast, the now-isolated region cut off from the rest of Russia by the independence of Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania, to the Ratmanov Island (one of the Diomede Islands) in the Bering Strait.
I cannot escape the conclusion that it was either written by a non-English speaker, or, just as likely, that in the editing of this section, someone linked together some sentences without thinking it through completely. This phrase above is not a sentence at all, but rather, a sentence fragment. I am going to go ahead, from here on out, just assume that some of the contributors to this article are just slightly deficient in their English skills, and that I can just go ahead and clean things up, for the easier understanding of native English speakers. Unschool 02:09, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
- Funny enough, that particular passage was most likely written by a native speaker, as it is taken verbatim from the Russia country study available here. In any case, if you could re-phrase it to read better, just go ahead—these are not the kind of edits that need to be discussed in detail on the article's talk page. Best,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 02:36, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
- And of course, you are correct, these don't need discussion. It was simply because I was trying to be sensitive to the possible non-English speaker that I announced my intentions. But I do agree with you, that it appears quite likely to have been an English speaker who made that edit. Unschool 02:40, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
