Putin talks of security threat to Russia's far east

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin today warned that the country’s far east was increasingly isolated from the rest of Russia, and failure to exploit the region’s vast natural resources threatened national security.

Speaking at a Kremlin meeting of the national security council, Putin said development of the vast region, stretching east to west from the Pacific coast to eastern Siberia, and south to north from the Chinese border to the Arctic Sea, was hampered by poor infrastructure and endemic corruption.