Ufa
Ufa is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Bashkortostan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, in the center-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the Ufa Plateau to the west of the southern Ural Mountains, with a population of over 1 million residents, up to 1.4 million residents in the urban agglomeration. Ufa is the eleventh most populous city in Russia and the fourth-most populous city in the Volga Federal District.
The city is considered to have been founded in 1574 when a fortress was built on the site of the city by order of Ivan the Terrible. Ufa was made capital of Ufa Governorate in 1865, when the governorate split from Orenburg Governorate. Ufa's population expanded during the early 20th century.
Today, Ufa's economy consists primarily of the oil refining, chemistry, and mechanical engineering industries; the petroleum company Bashneft and several of its subsidiaries are headquartered in Ufa. Ufa is an ethnically diverse city, home to a substantial number of ethnic Bashkirs and Tatars, with an ethnic Russian majority population. A number of educational institutions are located in Ufa, including Bashkir State University, Ufa State Aviation Technical University, Ufa State Petroleum Technological University, and Ural State Law University. The city hosted separate summits of the BRICS group as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2015.