Russia's lakes

Russia has one quarter of all the fresh water on the planet, a significant portion of the water is held in Russias many lakes. Lake Baikal in southern Siberia is the deepest lake in the world at a staggering 5387ft in depth. Lake Baikel is 25 to 30 million years old and has formed in a rift valley. At 31,722km2 it is the largest freshwater lake in all of Asia and the largest lake in Russia.
 A section of the southern shore of lake Baikal

The two largest lakes in Europe are both in Russia, lake Ladoga and lake Onega at 17,700km2 and 9,700km2 they are significantly larger than nearly all European lakes. Both of these lakes are young because they are remenents of a much larger lake that exsisted during the last ice age. The lakes are both around 12,000 years old.

The majority of Russian lakes are frozen over from around January to May, while some like lake Taymyr (4560km2) are only not frozen for 12 weeks of the year, this lake is located in the very northern tip of Siberia.

 lake taymyr is highlighted