Ok...how about a glimpse into my weird little mind?
I was looking at a world map. It's was map of various countries' average IQ and average GDP. It's interesting that the higher IQ averaves not only follow GDP, but they seem to, through my eyes anyway, follow longitudes of "ease of life". The lines where it's physically easier to live, the area between the tropics and the Artic and Antarctic circles.
And, a weird thought occurs to me. So, Russia has decided to simply (not really, but you know), take over a portion of a country. How long will it take a nation, under similar values, and a billion people to feed, to come to the conclussion that Russia no longer need trouble itself with that mass of intractable land called Siberia. It looks to me as an inevitability that China willneed the land to cultivate, as it stays within the "liveable" longitudes. Hopefully, someone close to Putin will have him choose his words wisely, lest they not be used on him by the future agressor...