Interestingly enough I saw a different analysis of Russian colonialism. In "Journey to Samarkand", an account of the first journey of the Transcaspian railway, the French journalist notes that Russian colonialism works because Russia was backwards and more féodal than the West.
Basically, it coopted local warlords by making them on par with the existing Russian Slavic nobility. They were recognized within the féodal system with less need for adaptation and less need for racialist theory. Russia colonized because they were strong. The warlords were beaten and had to integrate not because they're inferior Asians but because that's what the vanquished do, they submit to the Tsar