Finno-Ugrian "Russia"

Before the Slavs migrated eastwards into what is now known as Russia, the region was populated by a variety of Finno-Ugric peoples such as the Volga Finns, Samoyeds, Komi, and so on so forth. So how could the eastern Slavic migrations be prevented from taking root at least east of Belarus and the Ukraine? And in the absence of the peoples who would be known as the Rus', what would the states formed in the area be like? Perhaps some people like the Mordvins end up creating a kingdom in their stead. In any case, migrations and invasions of Turkic/Altaic people like IOTL are acceptable, I'm just asking how could Russia remain demographically dominated by the Finno-Ugrians and what the consequences would be.
 
There would be some massive butterflies. Does Sweden benefit from not having an OTL Russia equivalent to hamper its territorial expansion, or does the alt-Finns build a huge empire of their own? What religions are they likely to convert to, will they (like Russia) expand further eastwards and South, removing ke.... Taking land from Turks?

Perhaps no Russia equivalent arises, and the result is a plethora of more "normal sized" countries. Slavic, Uralic, perhaps Turkish languages, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Islam, even Buddhism (considering the Kalmyks)... Many combos are possible.
 
Two, complementary, situations could help.

Let's assume Huns either never form a cohesive migrating group or simply fail at establishing their domination in eastern Europe, meaning Sarmatians, Alans and eastern Germanic peoples (themselves more Sarmatised than IOTL) would dominate the area without the geopolitical changes than Huns provoked.

I'd see a good part of Proto-Slavs being ingrained into stabler entities between Black Sea and Don basin, that (if things goes more smoothly for the Roman Empire) would be similar to the upper Danube and Pannonia IOTL, being the center of tribal hegemonies (probably Alan or Sarmatians, at least heavily under their cultural influence) from Chernyakhov culture basis.

A stronger North/South attraction rather than West/East could be enough, not to prevent Proto-Slavs to expand eastwards but to limit it (as for preventing Slavs to be present in Ukraine and Belarus, that seems hard giving it's most probably one of their initial centers).

Preventing a Rus'-like entity to appear isn't that hard, once you butterfly away or at least delay long enough the establishment of Baltic/Black Sea trade roads trough Volga and/or Dniepr long enough.

It was the Arabo-Islamic trade roads that first motivated the establishment of strong entities, and alternate trade roads to Baltic in the case of a surviving Roman Empire (or even a maintained late Roman continuum dominated by ERE economy without the VIIth crisis).
Now, structuration of the region can't be delayed indefinitely, but you could end with Sarmatized/Alanized south-eastern Slavs, and northern Proto-Slavs advancing less deep in East, (maybe forming a Rus'-like entity in Poland with whoever dominate Baltic trade).

Eventually Finno-Ugrian would have a better deal, though I suspect they might end as an equivalent of Balts when it come to rivality with their neighbours.
 
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