Yeah. It's a huge country and obviously there's a ton of corruption.
I read a really interesting and surprisingly balanced article in the Economist(I think) within the last two months I think they were in Vladivostok or somewhere there abouts and they're trying to invest in gambling, real estate, and trade routes and the corruption was just out of this world.
There's also a apparently a deep seated fear in government and amongst the population that if they don't do something with the region China could eventually economically/socially dominate the area and even take over the area eventually.