The largest part of Russia is the vast Siberia, which is basically just endless forests, mountains and arctic tundra with few cities here and there - and the winters can be extreme. If not for the rich resources and the jobs that extraction of those resources creates, not many would choose to live there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

this map is also presupposing that Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azererbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, and Kyrgyzstan are all "In Russia", which ... is exactly the kind of puffed up blatantly self-aggrandizing dipshittery we all know to be a VERY russian-government-coded behavior.

I mean, I know Belarus is basically nothing but a puppet-state of Russia (which is exactly what they wanted Ukraine to become if Volodymyr Zelenskyy hadn't won the election, displaced their useful idiot, and derailed their handover) and suspect that Georgia is generally more friendly to Russia than it is to Ukraine, but ... fucking Armenia???
Fucking ... LITHUANIA?!

This map is suggesting that many of Russia's densest population centers aren't in Russia.

But it also firmly suggests Russia's intentions to enslave all these areas.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, that map shows the borders of the Soviet Union. It was the first I could find in a hurry, It's old but helped to prove my point that their landmass east of the Ural mountains is mostly wilderness. Here's a more up-to-date version that tells the same story:

https://www.geo-ref.net/pdf/russia.pdf

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Ahhh yeah okay on that point it's definitely illustrative! some of the context was lost by languange barrier...

and yep sure enough there's basically nobody in Siberia...