(06-24-2025, 01:53 AM)sailorsam Wrote:(06-17-2025, 10:52 PM)FCD Wrote: China would just love access to Russia's far east, and Russia will go to the mat before they allow this to happen.
I'm hearing mumbles about China starting to say that some of these areas were part of China in the past and they have a right to take them back.
Proof in the pudding of exactly what I have been saying for years. Western China is uninhabitable wasteland; what China really wants to get their hands on is the Russian far east, from just above the Arctic Circle south to China. Putin will go to his grave before he allows this to happen. Putin is sitting on an absolute gold mine (literally and metaphorically) in the Russian far east, and he knows it. When the time is right (i.e. the market), he will exploit these vast resources. Until then he's content to just let them sit, knowing they will always be there when the time comes.
Ironically, my very first post on ATS, way back in 2013, was about this very subject. It was the biggest most successful post I ever had on ATS with hundreds of flags and thousands of stars. It was entitled..."The Black Hole in Russia".
If you'd like to see some further examples of just how much Putin realizes what he's sitting on with the Russian' far east, do some research on a Russian oligarch by the name of Roman Abramovich and the money he sunk into Chukotka and the surrounding area right at the Arctic Circle at Putin's direction (and to get back into the good graces of Putin at the same time).