philosophy

Did you know that only two countries from the former USSR have reached the pre-Perestroika level? And those countries are Belarus and Uzbekistan. So, there's no need to offend the Uzbeks. Siberia has perfectly normal natural conditions; I live here. :) And I'm not the only one. :)
Currently, Siberia cannot survive on its own – it lacks the necessary industrial base. So, we need to create it, not just extract resources! Otherwise, we'll all go down together.
A Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Siberia axis would be quite viable. It's better to have relatives from Eurasia than the Chinese. At least the Uzbeks and Kazakhs won't try to remake us or treat us as second-class citizens.