Back home, the catalyst for the worst biotic catastrophe in the world, the Siberian Traps, don't have much left. 252 million years of erosion have reduced the igneous province to a pale shadow of its former self.
Here is the brainstorm for an alternate Earth:
http://imgur.com/NWlj880
From 60 to 43 million years ago, a series of flood basalt eruptions plagued the northern hemisphere, covering an estimated original area of eleven million square miles and a volume of four million cubic miles. 40 million years of erosion would mean an altogether different Russian landscape, no doubt, but to what extent? Would we still see vast, singular bands of boreal forests and steppes, or would we expect to see Russia hosting a wider variety of habitats?