2001 in Russia

Incumbents

• President: Vladimir Putin
• Prime Minister: Mikhail Kasyanov

  Events

• February 18 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.
• March 23 - The Russian space station Mir re-enters the atmosphere near Nadi, Fiji, and falls into the Pacific Ocean.
• July 3 - A Vladivostokavia Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia, killing 145.
• July 16 - The People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation sign the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation.
• October 4 - Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashes over the Black Sea en route from Tel Aviv, Israel to Novosibirsk, Russia; 78 are killed.
• December 1 - United Russia is created.

  Notable births

• June 21 - Alexandra Obolentseva, chess player
• October 28 - Ekaterina Starshova, actress

  Notable deaths

• January 11 - Princess Vera Konstantinovna of Russia
• March 17 - Boris Rauschenbach, physicist and rocket engineer
• May 7 - Boris Ryzhy, poet
• May 12 - Alexei Tupolev, aircraft designer
• May 13 - Sergey Afanasyev, engineer and politician
• May 15 - Georgy Shakhnazarov, politician
• May 19 - Alexei Petrovich Maresiev, World War II pilot
• May 30 - Nikolai Korndorf, composer
• June 5 - Vasily Kolotov, weightlifter
• July 1 - Nikolay Basov, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 17 - Timur Apakidze, aviator
• August 10
• * Vladimir Bougrine, painter
• * Stanislav Rostotsky, film director
• August 22 - Tatyana Averina, speed skater
• September 10 - Alexey Suetin, International Grandmaster of chess
• October 4 - Ahron Soloveichik, Russian-born American Rabbi
• October 10 - Vasily Mishin, rocket engineer
• October 23 - Georgy Vitsin, actor
• November 28 - Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy, scientist
• November 29 - Viktor Astafiyev, writer
• December 1 - Pavel Sadyrin, footballer
• December 23 - Dimitri Obolensky, historian
• December 27 - Boris Rybakov, historian