Clarification About "Russia" Word History

Below, in bold, is the text of the "Word History" I posted previously for "Russia." I did not make clear that all sources I researched agreed that "Russia" comes from the word "Rus," and that this was the name of a North Germanic group of people which settled in and around Kiev. The "uncertain" part is, how this group got that particular name and the word's further history. On the "naming" question, there were many theories in the various sources. The "Rus" were part of a larger North Germanic group called the "Varangians" (called the "Waergenga" in Old English), this group came out of what is now modern Sweden.

Further, when I mentioned "the transliterated form," I did not explain what that actually means. Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian (all of which are Indo European languages, and therefore related to English further down the "family tree") and several other languages (some Indo European and some from other language families) use a different alphabet system called "Cyrillic." It was a writing system developed back in about the 900s (A.D.) and is named in honor of the Eastern Orthodox saint, Cyril. So when someone "transliterates a word," they put it into the closest rendering of another alphabet system; in this case, Russian "Россия" equals "Rossiya."

"Russia"-The origins of this word for the largest country in the world (in land area) is not certain. There are various theories, and I will go with the one that makes most sense to me (ah, there's a caveat for you). During the 800s (A.D.), a group of North Germanic traders/warriors/raiders (take your pick, although a bit of all three is probably correct), seemingly from modern Sweden, traveled down some of the rivers in what is now Russia. They were called the "Rus," perhaps coming from Old North Germanic "Rothrslandi," their homeland area. It is "possible" this term came from Finnish. After firmly establishing themselves in settlements around Kiev, the area came to be called "Kiev Rus." At some point Greek picked up the basic term as "Rhos," and called the area "Rhosia." The Greek Orthodox branch of Christianity prevailed in that area and became "Russian" or "Eastern" Orthodox, and the Greeks traded there, so it isn't terribly difficult to see how the word spread. Latin borrowed the Greek term as "Russi," and English got the term either from Greek or Latin. The transliterated form from Russian is "Rossiya." The German term for Russia is "Russland," literally "the land of the Russ."