At this particular historic moment, the urgency of the economic assimilation of new natural and human resources worldwide is somehow obscured by the global crisis and by the necessity of reforming the global financial system.
The situation will change without fail and pretty soon. Prices for industrial materials will crawl upward again, and the urgency of finding and rapidly utilizing new territories and new raw material sources will again become obvious.
For Russia, with its wide stretches of unused land and fabulous natural riches, the right thing to do is to meet this new situation prepared, such as with projects and initiatives in the field of international cooperation directed toward recolonization of Siberia and the Russian Far East. They certainly should be worked out well in advance — of course, with compulsory consideration of the needs and wants of potential partners. The world situation does not favor procrastination and lack of political will.