Russia, the Last Colonial Empire

Well, in the end that will be hard indeed. (Or according to the article to be more precise: between Russia, colonies and dependencies.)

But the thrust of the article is that Russia should cherish their greatest colony: Siberia, rather than wasting energy holding on to territories for nostalgic reasons. It argues that the current exploitation keeps Siberia poor and adds only modest prosperity to St. Petersburg and Moscow and giving back autonomy, agency would benefit Russia far more than just selling natural resources to China (or Europe, for that matter) and holding on to their dependencies.