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2018 FIFA WORLD CUP IN RUSSIA

Russian Embassy in US advises CIA to update Russia statistics

Тhe CIA congratulated the 2018 World Cup quarter finalists and invited fans to get acquainted with some "fun facts" about each of the eight countries

WASHINGTON, July 9. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in the US has advised the CIA to update the data on Russia in its World Factbook. Russian diplomats thus commented on the CIA’s congratulations to the teams that reached the 2018 FIFA World Cup quarterfinals.

"Congratulations accepted, @CIA. Please update your @Russia map and statistics: Population: 146,9 million (Jan 2018 est.). Area total: 17,125,191 sq km," the embassy tweeted.

On Saturday, the CIA congratulated the 2018 World Cup quarter finalists and invited fans to get acquainted with some "fun facts" about each of the eight countries, that is, Russia, the UK, Belgium, Brazil, Uruguay, France, Croatia and Sweden, adding them to the World Factbook published since 1962.

As for Russia, it said the country’s population is 142.3 mln people, while its total area is 17,098,242 square kilometers. The CIA failed to take into account the area and population of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which reunited with Russia in 2014 after a referendum held there.

The CIA also tweeted that Russia "has made 11 #WorldCup appearances since first entering in 1958 (as USSR)." Besides, it estimated the GDP per capita in Russia at $27,900 as of 2017.

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Foreign policy 2018 World Cup in Russia

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