[The Antiyuppie]

“It’s sort of like why normal Americans don’t worry about losing control of Detroit or Gary, Indiana.”

Those areas have vast and untapped narural resources. Detroit and Gary have few natural, or even unnatural, resources.

[Alberta's Child]

The resources across much of Siberia are "untapped" because it is prohibitively expensive to tap them.

Russia is already importing Chinese workers to keep much of eastern Russia functioning. Kind of makes me wonder if Russia is even a functional country anymore.