The Russian Federation sits above China. Russia has a population of 141 million, down from 148 million when the Soviet Union dissolved. The majority of that population resides in the European areas near Moscow and St. Petersburg; few in the Asian areas where the majority of Russia's plentiful natural resources are. Russia is the richest country in the world in terms of natural resources. After the Soviet Union went bankrupt, Russia invited many international corporations in to develop its natural resources with revenue sharing as the contingent reward. It worked well. Twenty years later, Russia is the world's second-largest exporter of oil and natural gas and the seventh-largest holder of American debt.
China is the most populous country in the world with 1.3 billion people and could well use the natural resources to its north. Without Russia's nuclear arms, how long would China take to acquire those natural resources?
Russia is not suicidal.
