You might be interested in this answer I wrote, plus this older answer by u/treebalamb about the Russian conquest of Siberia.

The conquest was very much an extractive enterprise, and indigenous people and Russians in fortified settlements would be very aware of their place in this endeavour, which was first and foremost to funnel furs to Moscow for international trade. Even though indigenous people might be out hunting, trapping or herding in vast stretches of remote territory and only arrive for trade once a year, everyone understood the obligation to pay iasak, and receive goods such as alcohol or tobacco as "gifts" from the tsar in return.

Even peoples as distant as the Chukchi were aware of this process and the threat of violence that backed it up, although in their case their resistance was actually militarily successful until the 20th century.

Which is not to say that the process was at all centrally controlled before modern communication or transportation technology. But if anything this gave state representatives massive leeway on the ground, especially for corruption (taking extra furs for themselves, or cooking the tsar's accounting books to sell a little on the side). This was a perennial problem for the government in Moscow, but it also resulted in high turnover and prosecution of local officials, as well as endless plans for governmental reform.