President Putin recently made a bold claim: the Russian Far East will be vital for the future of the country. But why? Let's take a closer look.

A Land Full of Riches

The Russian Far East is a massive region, covering nearly 41% of the country’s landmass. To put that into perspective, it’s almost the size of Australia! This vast territory is packed with valuable natural resources that are barely tapped. For instance:

The region produces all of Russia’s antimony and nearly all of its diamonds.

It also churns out 90% of the country’s borax, 50% of its gold, and over 40% of its tin.

There are also vast reserves of coal, fish, seafood, rare earth materials, and even 30% of Russia’s forests – making it one of the world’s great "lungs," similar to the Amazon rainforest.

Despite all this wealth, the Far East is sparsely populated. Its two biggest cities, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, have populations of only around 600,000 people each. The entire region is home to just ...