Ant #327. Russia: Europe or not?

It's an interesting fact!

When people talk about Russia, they call it a european country.
When you talk to russians, most of them don't like to associate themselves to Europe (thanx to Putin's propaganda).

The thing is... Russian culture is definitely European culture. Russian music, literature, art are all based on European ones. Russian language is in European group of languages. Russians are Christians. We live in the same media space, we share the same past and future. Russian etiquette is European etiquette. First Russian universities were opened by the tsar Peter the 1st who brought the education from Europe. Russian science exists thanks to European science. After all, Russia is by far the largest European country by both area and population, taking up to 40% of the continent.

But many Russians still think they have nothing to do with Europe because Europeans support gays.
Doh.