Actually, no. We say Poland is in the central Europe because, *gasp* it's in the middle of Europe. Who'd have thought it?
Yes, I realise that in your conception of Europe, Poland is in the central part. Can you understand that, in a different conception of Europe that excludes a Russia so detached from Europe that we can barely hear its ghost, Poland is not at the centre of Europe?
But why would that be a modern conception? Ethnically Russians are overwhelmingly Caucasian. Of course that doesn't really mean all that much, but it does more resemble Europe than Asia.
Asia's ethnicity is by no means homogeneous. Indian ethnicity doesn't even vaguely resemble Chinese ethnicity.
The language is related to European languages, not Asian ones.
Asian languages are by no means homogeneous. India, Iran, and Afghanistan speak languages that are "just as European" as any other European language, and "more European" than many languages spoken in Russia.
The dominant religion is more European than Asian.
The dominant religion in the Czech Republic is Atheism, and the dominant religion in Albania is Islam. The dominant religion in South America is more European than Europe is
Culturally they certainly have their own thing going, but it seems more European than Asian. I just don't get the argument.
Certainly I would say they are backwards compared to most other Europeans in most social, economic, cultural, respects. But that in and of itself doesn't seem to me to be an argument that they are more Asian than European.
The fact that the vast majority of the country is indisputably in Asia doesn't make a difference? The fact that, politically, Russia doesn't care one bit about being European, and is aligned with no other country in Europe? The fact that, at the end of the cold war, when Europe reunified, Russia went in the complete opposite direction, and continues to go in the opposite direction, makes no difference? It's bizarre that people still cling old fashioned perspectives and silly comparisons like language and culture -- as if Asia is in any way homogeneous, and not one giant land mass encompassing many diverse nationalities already!
It makes perfect sense that you and VR see Russia as part of Europe, given that, for as long as you can remember, the two World Wars and the Cold War defined what Europe was. But for me, Leoreth, and I'd imagine a bunch of people like us, who came of age in a post-Cold War Europe, things look a lot different. The 1990s was characterised by European reunification, where countries from Eastern and Western Europe either unified into a single, new Europe, or went their way with Russia into kleptocratic dysfunction and state capitalism. This new Europe makes a hell of a lot more sense than drawing a stupid, arbitrary line in the Urals and claiming that Russia is somehow part of Europe, despite not having anything to do with Europe for 20 years, not being part of the European project, not participating in European institutions, not having anything resembling European values for social justice, equality, democracy and liberty, and not having any kind of affinity for Europe in any way other than those established 1,000 years ago, which have obviously eroded over the course of history. It's such a nonsense to not update one's understanding of Europe, especially when, doing so, one has to bleat about things that happened 1,000 years ago instead of looking at the state of affairs in the here and now.
