Russian Far East is a name of territory lying at the edge of the continent of Asia on the northwest coast of Pacific Ocean within latitude range from 42°15'N to 73°N and longitudinal range from 122°E to 169°W. The whole area of the Russian Far East is approximately 3 125 000 km². Geographically the territory outlines an area to the west of Kolyma river, including its confluents Anuy river, Omolon river and upper part of Kolyma river (upper of Chubukulakh Mt. range), upper part of Indigirka river (upper half of its confluent Nera river), left side of Yudoma river basin and Maya river (Lena river basin) and Amur river basin from the confluence of Shilka and Argun' rivers. The territory includes eight administrative units (krai and oblast') of Russian Federation: Chukotian Autonomy, Magadanskaya oblast' (Magadan region), Khabarovskiy krai, Amurskaya oblast', Jewish Autonomy, Primorskiy krai, Kamchatskaya oblast' and Sakhalinskaya oblast'. Eastern-Siberian and Chukotian Seas surround the land on the north (Ice Ocean basin) and Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan on the East (Pacific Ocean Basin).

The vegetation within the territory of Russian Far East changes from polar deserts with no or scattered plants on the northernmost point Wrangell Island to the diverse broadleaved - Korean pine forests on the south of region. The five vegetation zones changes each other from north to south. The zone of Arctic deserts, occurring on Wrangell and Gerald Islands, is changed by zone of Arctic tundra on the coast of Ice Ocean. The last includes on the east of continent whole Chukotka peninsula. To the east of Kolymskiy Mt. range there is very specific for Far East the zone of Beringian woodlands. Main vegetation type of this zone is low (6 m in height) dwarf-pine forest. The boreal zone occurs between the latitudes 43°N (in southern mountains) to the almost 70°N. It occupies near 75% of an area of the Russian Far East. The dominant vegetation type is larch forest. Only in southern regions (lower part of Amur river basin) spruce changes larch, and on Kamchatka Betula ermanii forms vegetation cover on the seaward areas. On the latitude approximately 46-50°N the boreal zone gradually changes to the temperate zone, represented by mixed hardwood-conifer forests.