@dump_stack @kravietz And here I was doubting whether I need to mention "whiteness" as a concept in this toot. It's uncanny how well the whole thing translates to post-Soviet states.

In seriousness, it's going to be pretty hard to explain, but I'll try. Starting with, "a Tatar woman taught me Russian". That happens a lot. People from other ethnicities have to work in Russian, teach in Russian, and then get branded as Russian. It's like half my thesis: see someone called "Russian?"

@dump_stack Check. A lot of the time they're going to be from Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, whatever. I can't even begin with the complexities of the Indigenous folks that actually have to live in Russia, because that situation's worse. The rest of us have borders.

As for "well-integrated"... Well, let's put it this way. Once our war with Russia started, I had no problem explaining cultural appropriation to post-Soviet folks. All I had to do was say the following:

@dump_stack "Oh, you khokhly, you guys have such nice food, and really pretty shirts, I bought one the last time I was there, shame about the civil war, though, but at least we're going to have a nice holiday in Crimea, which you shouldn't have ever been given anyway, but it's ok, we'll come save you from yourselves."

You know, people get it. Even the most hardcore right-wingers get it immediately.

@dump_stack The kicker is this: this sort of attitude is aimed at the second largest nation in the region. That "big brother" narrative. Before the war, we were stuck in this weird position where we were always close to power (quite a few of us even made it into the high halls), but despite the practical indistinguishability of "Russianized" Ukrainians from Russians proper, there was always this undercurrent. And we're not even visually different, which is a game changer in these questions.