Moscow’s Colonial Approach to Russian Far East and Its Development ‘Incompatible,’ Kulakov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 4 – Moscow’s colonial approach to the Russian Far East in which it makes deals with China about the resources of the region is “incompatible” with development because Beijing wants cheap raw lumber, raw fish and other raw materials rather than more expensive processed or partially processed goods, Georgy Kulakov says.

            The central Russian powers that be often talk about developing the region so as to boost the standard of living of the people there, the historian who comes from the region says. But because it insists on keeping all deals with foreign countries in its own hands, it has to adapt to the desire of China for raw rather than finished materials (region.expert/colony/).

            This also means, the Siberian says, that it is Moscow not China that is responsible for the disappearance of forests and fish and that it is Moscow’s policies which are keeping incomes of Russians in the Far East low and turning regional settlements into “hotbeds of social tension and protests.”