Fullofbias

Did you notice how all of us living OUTSIDE Britain were genuinely worried about the outcome of the British referendum? Like it is our domestic issue.

That’s because it is. Europe is our home. The outcome is a huge blow for all pro-European forces inside and outside the EU. It is a victory for the fledgling Nationalist International – a huge and powerful global coalition that unites Nigel Farage and Donald Trump, West European far-right and far-left populist demagogues, East European nationalists and last but not least – Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia that made its own contribution to making Brexit happen.

But it’s great that we see it as a common issue. It is time to rise to the next level and engage in pan-European political battle against archaic politics that nurtures divisions, jingoism, corruption and wars.

The liberal discourse in Europe has been poisoned by nationalism for decades. That happened because progressive politicians in the 19th and 20th century used nationalism as a tool of political mobilization in their fight for human rights, equal representation and against the oppression of archaic empires.

But on its own, nationalism is an ideology of regress that strives to take the world back to tribalism, patrimonialism and anti-meritocracy. It is the ideology of us against them, of always supporting your country and your kin, even if their actions are vile and immoral.

The division of Europe into ethnocratic nation states is unnatural. It is only the Holocaust coupled with post-WWII deportations that turned countries like Poland and Czech Republic into monoethnic and mono-religious states. But is Poland better without Jews, Germans and Ukrainians? Is Czech-only Prague better? It the multicultural cosmopolitan feel that makes countries like Britain and cities like London look stronger than the above two.

I am a Russian European. I am proud of my language and culture, but I am not proud of my country. Actually I am deeply ashamed of what it has done to Ukraine and what it is doing to its own intelligentsia and middle class. I am ashamed of it acting is a wicked teenager that won’t grow up despite all the harm it has done to itself and its neighbours.

Being Russian, I also realize how many people and politicians in countries to the west of mine are exact copies of those who have created Putin’s regime, how close all European countries are to replicating it – much closer than any of them would admit, even to themselves. Yes I mean you, Poland and Hungary. Putin’s Russia is indeed Dorian Gray’s picture of Europe.

I am totally on the same wavelength with my pro-European friends in Britain, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Baltic and Scandinavian countries, Ukraine and Georgia.

I have as little in common with Russia’s pro-Putin majority as I have with Ukrainian and other East European nationalists, West European anti-EU populists of all shades and colours, Brexiteers, Trumpists and Tea Party supporters in the US. I have none of these among my friends and I can hardly see any of them on my Facebook timeline.

There are many Europeans like me, inside and outside the EU. It’s time for European liberals to realign the barricades – destroy the ones that divide us along the national boundaries and build a massive new bulwark against the White Walkers of the 21st century, the nationalists.

I totally believe that European Union is the best institution that has ever been created in this continent. It is also the best guarantee for the survival of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, from large ones to the tiniest. It is nationalists who start wars and conduct ethnic cleansing.

The EU is still very young, weak, poorly coordinated and disunited. Well, we need to make it stronger. It’s time for a new and more powerful European dream. We need to talk to each other and work it out. Now.