evidence: Tuva is a sparsely populated autonomous republic in southern Siberia. The republic, which is about 170,000 square kilometers—about the same as Wisconsin or Florida—borders northwestern Mongolia and has a little more than 300,000 people. Tuva is quite isolated not only from the rest of the world but also from the rest of Russia, with which it does not even have a rail link. Due to its remoteness from the rest of Russia and its proximity to Mongolia, Tuva has retained its nomadic culture like no other territory in the Russian Federation. Much of the Tuvan economy is self-sustainable and does not depend on Russia, so the republic has acted quite independent of Moscow’s policies. Another reason for Tuva’s high level of political autonomy is that it officially became part of the Soviet Union only in 1944 and was influenced by Russia less than other territories that were part of Russia for a longer time. The Russian Empire established a protectorate over Tuva only at the start of the 20th century. Tuvan is a Turkic tongue with significant Mongolian language influences. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is perhaps the most famous ethnic Tuvan in Russia today.