A Curious Poll.

Sputnik, the subsidiary of Ria, has recently conducted an interesting poll (in Russian). Number of Europeans from four EU nations--France, UK, Germany and Poland--were asked a simple question: if Russia is a European Country. Responses are shown in this graph. Since it is in Russian--white numbers (and segments of pie-charts) stand for "Yes", solid color (orange) is for "No", the rest is for "Don't know". 

French turned out to be most decisive in rejecting Russia as a European nation, Britons were second, but it was Germany where Russia, albeit with minimal advantage, is considered to be European, with Poles overwhelmingly viewing Russians as European people. I want to forestall immediately all those "pattern seekers" if they would decide to "see" a purely geography/distance factor as a "pattern". It is not. In the end, geographically France is closer to Russia than UK, yet, it is in France where minimal number of people view Russia as the European nation. 

Russians' response in comments was overwhelmingly predictable and it could be reduced to this: "Yes, we are not "Europeans" in Europe of France and UK." This is precise answer since neither UK nor France are European anymore, unlike, say, Poland and Poles who really do know who they are and what they want. I may disagree with Poles on many geopolitical and history issues, but Poles sure as hell know that they are predominantly white, Christian (Catholic), European people who still treasure their mono-culture and cultural heritage, and this heritage is distinctly European. The "Europe" of France and UK, on the other hand, is a multicultural cloaca, with post-Christian relativist "morality" and dumbed down population which was completely emasculated and racially and culturally deluded. The only things "European" France or UK have left are some architectural places, some graves of Europe's greats and some sweet memories of once cultural and intellectual greatness. That is about it. France is long ago not a whole country--with her South being Islamized with increasing speed. Marseilles is not a French city anymore, it is Islamic Arab crime-ridden shithole, with Paris' suburbs being run by Muslim gangs and it is really preposterous to view France as a "European" nation. Same goes for UK with her own version of post-greatness syndrome and with having no guts to even deal with wide spread pedophilia and wholesale rape of underage girls by Britain's generic "Asian men". I think UK still has many of those undiscovered culturally diverse towns and other localities, so--stay tuned. But with Muhammed being now the most popular boys' name in London, United Kingdom can look with optimism into her even greater even more "European" future.

Germany is a complex case, but Germany has some serious factor which plays for her in a long run, but I will avoid discussing it here. Enough to say that Germany's undisputed claim to European economic dominance can not be sustained with her current cultural (and economic) policies. So, unlike France or UK, Germany will face or is already facing this choice--to continue to be what she is today and, inevitably, fade into the obscurity, or undertake a number of policy-adjustments in order to remain economic (and political) locomotive of Europe. So, I have to agree, in this case, with French and Britons--Russia is NOT a European state in a modern sense, since Russia is European in the most profound European sense, which was rejected by France and UK. As Edurad Limonov succinctly observed recently, it is Russia which is a real West today. I can only quote myself here:

Until this geopolitical fact is understood and internalized, that Marseilles, London or Brussels are not Europe anymore, no serious discussion on Pan-European Entente is possible. This is not to mention European limitrophes such as Poland, Baltic States or even Sweden who in their Russo-phobic insanity will do their utmost to impede such a discussion.

In the end, it is not enough that St.Petersburg features constantly in all public (such as Trip Advisor) Top 10 European tourist destinations, St.Petersburg is actually officially recognized as Europe's Best Tourism Destination. Again. If you get my drift. In the end, Russian Police, unlike its French counterpart, doesn't flee armed mobs, it shoots back and gets it under control and restores the order--that is why Russian cities, especially large ones, are safe. In the end, one has to see St. Petersburg, or Moscow, or Sochi, or returning back to life Sevastopol and Crimea, or Vladivostok, or visit Peterhof to understand why Russians do not care about the place once known as Europe--because they can say I am Russian and be proud of it, especially in the place which was never conquered.