How Western is Russia?

[Hochmeister]

Russia is a part of the Western civilization, but she is not the West Europe.

[Chocolate_Hound]

IMO the Cold War designation describes Russia perfectly: Second World. They are neither Western (first world) nor Asian (third world). They are in between. Living in Russia doesn't really feel like the rest of Europe. It's more like America (in that it's a superpower and hosts hundreds of millions of people).

Socially I personally wouldn't consider Russians to be white, social whiteness to me is Latin script + Catholic/Protestant religion. There are enough cultural differences in East Slavic culture to disqualify them as traditional white people. Something is off.

[Chocolate_Hound]

Any country that uses a non-Latin script isn't Western in my view. At that point you're distinct enough to live in your own bubble. Countries like Turkey and Vietnam who use Latin script are Western-influenced of course.

[Corporate_Demolisher]

Russia and other Slavic Orthodox nations such as Ukraine and Bulgaria are European, but I don’t really see them as “Western” - they are not quite that. I’d second what someone else said beforehand - they stem from the same origin as Western civilization, but they took a different path. They have been treated as inferiors by the West for many centuries.