Comments by "Alan Friesen" (@alanfriesen9837) on "Putin Denounces West, Russia Will Follow Own Path; Russia Annexes Four Regions, Counterattacks Liman" video.

  1. I think Putin's description of Russian history is highly revisionist. You can ask the Iranians how aggressively imperialistic the Russians used to be. Having said that though, it probably is appropriate for Russia to start looking east and south as well as west for political connection. Europe is not really a continent. Its continental status is based on the limited geographical understanding of the ancient Greeks. The Greeks saw the world as three lands (Europe, Asia & Africa) divided by three seas (the Mediterranean, the Black & the Red Seas). But Europe is really just the westernmost region of Eurasia. There are four major cultural groupings that have some presence in Europe. There is the Mediteranean (Greco-Romantic), the Germanic, the Slavic and the Turkic. The first two, along with what remains of the Celtic civilization, are very intertwined and together they make up the West. Russia has always been considered a fringe society by the West. Over the last two hundred twenty years Russia has had major conflicts with France, Britain,Germany and the United States and though Russia has frquently bben an ally of convenience, they've never really been treated as equals, especially culturally. The Eurasian continent has several civilizations on it. It has the aforementioned Western civilization, the Semitic civilization (a substantial percentage of which is in North Africa), the Turkic civilization, the Persian civilization, the Indic civilization, and the Sinitic civilization. There are also Austronesian and Siberian cultures that have strong interactions with the civilizations on their peripheries, but maintain a certain level of distinction. As for Russia, it has tried to be a part of Western civilization and it has had a notable presence in that arena. However, if the Russians choose a more oriental path going forward, which may very well be the best bet going forward, both economically and culturally, then the declaration of a seperate Russian culture might make a lot of sense.
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