Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East have traditionally been seen as a vast storehouse of natural resource wealth to be developed for the benefit of the Russian Federation. This article investigates the social and ecological problems that face potentially rich but sparsely populated regions. The article is based on numerous field trips to the two regions between 2001 and 2007. We find that processes aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of resource utilization are weak and that the federal government takes too much tax gained from resource development from the locations where the resources are exploited. Consequently, local authorities cannot fund adequate social and environmental protection measures.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.