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The thread title does say politically influential. Not economic, cultural, language, technology or innovation etc. Russia wields a considerably heavier hand of political will than the rest of Europe.
Politically America, Canada, Australia, India adore England more so than the Queen and they all speak English - show me a country where Russia is liked or where russian is spoken except the glorious Belarus and half of Ukraine? (maybe only in america lol given the answers so far...).
Politically America, Canada, Australia, India adore England more so than the Queen and they all speak English - show me a country where Russia is liked or where russian is spoken except the glorious Belarus and half of Ukraine? (maybe only in america lol given the answers so far...).
You don't need to be "liked" in order to be influential.
But you can be secretly admired by many instead)))
^ This has been Putin's goal since 2005: to make Russia look scary with zero f@cks given about the well being of the citizens...yet another similarity to north korea.
I'd still lean towards the UK as being the third most influential country in the world.
When it comes to commanding respect, the British are second to none.
^ This has been Putin's goal since 2005: to make Russia look scary with zero f@cks given about the well being of the citizens...yet another similarity to north korea.
Oh don't be overly dramatic
North Korea doesn't have too many secret admirers, but Russia does. Hence, there is a difference.
This. Russia has a lot more geopolitical weight than these other countries. I disagree with the North Korea comparison (I understand why a Russia hater like euro123 would say that however), because Russia’s foreign policy has had a lot more effects on other countries and existing conflicts than NK, which people only care about when they have nothing else to deal with.
To me, a big item in the CON column for Japan, Germany, the UK and France is the fact that on many questions, they are still so closely aligned with the US that it is very difficult to argue that they truly have influence. Now if the EU (and therefore Germany and France although all countries would contribute to its political weight) struck any sort of significant deal on climate with China and India but without the US (or even against the US), then that could change.
It all depends on which parameters we are looking at. If we are talking about influence in its most basic form (the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.) then Russia is definitely more influential than any other country in Europe, even if it’s influence stems from fear.
However there are many nuances, and if we are talking about soft power, then the UK has more of that than Russia. However the US overshadows the UK, and whatever influence they yield is overlooked, where as Russia is one of the few powers that dares to oppose the US, which is why they yield so much influence even if on paper they don’t look all that impressive.
^ The only indisputable thing about russia is that no one in eastern europe speaks russian these days compared to 1980.
Both France and the UK have 10 times more power separately compared to Russia in every single aspect: language influence, economy, tourism, currencies, startups, financial centres, gdp projections, influence over other countries etc etc.
Just because the American media obsess with Ukraine/Russia for some reason doesn't mean america is the only trustworthy source of news in this world.
The title says "politically influential". UK and France have very little political influence outside Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and even in those regions their influence is overshadowed by more influential countries such as Russia.
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