Whatever its European credentials, Russia is not an Asian power for many reasons. Although 75 percent of its territory is in Asia, only 22 percent of its population lives there. Siberia may be Russia’s “treasure chest,” containing the majority of the mineral wealth, oil, and gas, but it is a harsh land, freezing for months on end, with vast forests (taiga), poor soil for farming, and large stretches of swampland. Only two railway networks run west to east—the Trans-Siberian and the Baikal-Amur Mainline. There are few transport routes leading north to south and so no easy way for Russia to project power southward into modern Mongolia or China: it lacks the manpower and supply lines to do so

Whatever its European credentials, Russia is not an Asian power for many reasons. Although 75
percent of its territory is in Asia, only 22 percent of its population lives there. Siberia may be Russia’s
“treasure chest,” containing the majority of the mineral wealth, oil, and gas, but it is a harsh land,
freezing for months on end, with vast forests (taiga), poor soil for farming, and large stretches of
swampland. Only two railway networks run west to east—the Trans-Siberian and the Baikal-Amur
Mainline. There are few transport routes leading north to south and so no easy way for Russia to
project power southward into modern Mongolia or China: it lacks the manpower and supply lines to
do so