"The" with proper names like countries I was reading a Guardian article today (according to it, some Russians apparently hacked the national election servers in the US to ensure Trump's victory, but that doesn't really matter here). What struck me is the use of the definite article in the last sentence of this paragraph: Like his Democratic colleagues on the panel, Wyden is pressing Barack Obama for additional public disclosures revealing Russian electoral interference. Such pressure has placed the CIA and other intelligence agencies between the incoming president to whom they will soon answer and a chorus of legislators, mostly but not exclusively Democrats, who consider the Russia hack a national emergency. Why are those Russian hackers called "the Russia" here? Never seen such article use before. Or does it refer to "hack" ("The Russia/Russian hack is a national emergency")? Here is the article for your reference: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/11/intelligence-agencies-cia-donald-trump-russia