We played Russia. As now the Russians, especially young people, no longer feel European
A recent poll by the Levada Center, a research group labeled a "foreign agent" by Moscow, revealed that only 29% of Russians consider Russia a European country, which represents a drastic drop from 52% in 2008. This decline it is also due to a generational shift, with young people between 18 and 24 years of age, of which only 23%. feels European.
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Previous polls by Levada and the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation also show that despite not growing up during the Cold War, young Russians are more wary of NATO than any other international organization. Young Russians are also more critical of their government which they would not rebuild in a European image anyway. We have failed, completely failed, even as an example to the world.
Russia has been European at times. After the disappearance of the Principality of Kiev, which had begun to forge close relations with the Nordic European and the Byzantine world, Russia disappeared from Europe for almost two and a half centuries, absorbed by its struggles with the Mongols and their descendants. . In the eighteenth century it powerfully re-emerged on the old continent, with St. Petersburg and the Black Sea that must have been its gateway.
However, only by following in the footsteps of other Europeans, Russia has not been able to develop an organic path of development. In the 19th century, the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky argued: “The Russians are as Asian as they are Europeans. The mistake of our policy over the past two centuries has been to make European citizens believe that we are true Europeans. … We bowed like slaves before the Europeans and earned only their hatred and contempt. It is time to get away from ungrateful Europe. Our future is in Asia. "
After the fall of communism we had the opportunity to truly open the doors to Russia, to let it enter Europe, with true friendship. instead we are closed. On the one hand the fear, on the other the economic narrow-mindedness, on the other hand the open hostility meant that Russia was excluded even from the good neighborhood. The results can be seen: the Russians are looking to Asia, to China. A missed opportunity for Western culture and its politics.
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The article We played Russia. As now the Russians, especially young people, no longer feel European comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/ci-siamo-giocati-la-russia-come-ormai-i-russi-soprattutto-giovani-non-si-sentono-piu-europei/ on Sun, 04 Apr 2021 11:31:56 +0000.