@Political Interest
Of course. But Russians are a majority in many of these non-traditionally Slavic republics aren't they?
Nope. They are not.
And most of the Uralic nationalities are loyal to Russia.
Not as much as some wish they were.
More oppression and crack down only means more of going back to the roots.
Most of them still have autonomy.
Again. Nope.
They were supposed to elect their governments and all, but Putin reversed that and chose to appoint governors himself.
What, the Russian Federation was formed to avert nationalism? Do you have any sources for this claim?
No need for sources, the law and type of system is literally in the name of the country. Well, I guess that can be a source it self, that is the name of the country.
The whole idea of organizing Russia into a federation of many republics is to insure the many nationalities in it stay within the federation.
Thats why they were supposed to have autonomy, so their national identities don't spill over and begin seeking independence like many other soviet republics did.
There will be no repeat of 1991. They are not stupid. Russians are very intelligent people. They will not make that same mistake again.
Irrelevant.
The decisions are made by Putin's regime not by the Russian people.
And technically speaking, it'll be actually better for the Russian people to lose the eastern republics.
They can finally stop barring the cost of maintaining them, and the eastern republics can support themselves with their resources.
There are many Eurasian nationalities in Russia such as Chuvash, Tatars or Udmurts and other Turkic and Uralic peoples. Still they have a lot of European blood.
Persians have European blood mixed into them, that doesn't mean anything.
Its not racial or ethnic but national.
The Chechens have European blood, that didn't stop them from fighting 2 wars for independence and still pursuing it.
I thought Chechens were Asians? Having light eyes and light hair does not make you European.
They Eurasian. Mixed.
And your previous arguement was that those national groups are Europeans, my answer was that being white or light colored doesn't make you European nor does it cancel out your national and cultural identity.
Hinted in the part right above this one you responded to.
Except in the greater perspective the Russians are closer to Europeans than they are to classic Asian nations like China, India or Japan. Maybe they are close to Eurasian peoples like Tatars, Udmurts and Chuvash but I know enough about Russia and it is nothing like a classic Asian nation. They are even different to Uzbeks and Kazakhs.
Not really, the western parts have traditional European cultural aspects, though not fully European.
And Asia is vast and has tons of nations in it, there is no exact form of what makes a traditional Asian nation.
As such, in comparison you need to compare Russia to a specific part of Asia.
For example, if you compared Russia and Iran, you'll see a considerable amount of similarities, more than Russia has with western European nations.
Sure they might seem very different when comparing the ruling regimes now, but in regards to social structures, cultural and social aspects, they're much more similar than what meets the eye.
Further more, they're both land empires and have similar internal political structures.
Infact, in regards to internal political and social structures, Russia has far more in common with Asian land empires than with European empires and federations.
Russians are normal Europeans. They like to drink tea and beer and their food is European. Their books and mentality are European. The DNA of Russians is close to other Slavic peoples. They are our natural friends.
They're not.
And DNA is irrelevant.
Heck, even among Europeans themselves, the only thing in common between many European nations is that all were taken over by liberal ideology. Otherwise, even European nations in the center and western parts of the continent would differ culturally from each other.
Talk to a spaniard, a frank, a german, and an italian, and you'll see the underlying difference in ease.
And yet the English are doing their best to try and get a free trade deal with the Chinese. The Chinese will not have a bad relationship with Europe and they cannot gain strategic influence here either. There will not be Chinese military bases in European countries. The only cold war with China will be in Asia and that is a problem for Americans not Europeans.
European nations are for the most part vassal states at the moment, their decisions are, for the time being, irrelevant as the US will drag them by force to what ever venture it pursues.
Europeans also have nothing to gain from the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, yet they still were forced to participate in it.
A cold war doesn't necessarily mean that China will have military bases in Europe. It already is gaining political influence in Europe and inside the EU.
China is already expanding into Africa where Europeans get their resources from.
China is also expanding into key regions where major trading routes, which Europeans need, and establishing its influence in.
And China is already expanding in Russia in the east, where the raw materials Europeans also consume much of is.
The talk of a cold war isn't a prediction for the future bro, its firing shot was the belt and road initiative, and it's not going to stop anytime soon.
EDIT:
On a side note;
I don't understand why you are insisting on classifying things as "European" as if its something that is of any significance.
Russia is a Euroasian country and eastern slavs (ethnic Russians along with some Caucasian ethnic groups) are also in most ways Eurasians due to centuries of mixing under the empire.
And even if they weren't Eurasian at all but of fully European blood; Whats that has to do with anything ?
You do realize that Europe has a long history of wars within it between various European national groups ?
Europe isn't one entity, it has many national and cultural groups within it, which is why the EU is having problems btw, and they each have their own cultures, traditions, and aspirations.
And even when you consider it on a civilization scale, Europe is still not just one civilization. The formation of the eastern, western, southern and central nations of Europe is vastly different from each other and have very different roots and backgrounds.
The main reason why many European nations seem similar right now is because they're all based on a liberal capitalist systems, and for many of them being imposed on them. But that system of values is also in place in many parts of Asia and the Americas. So its not unique to Europe.