> rule of law, civil liberties, fairness and freedom of elections, wide representation of interests (instead of narrow groups), and equal access to resources across various groups within a society, Russia was already at the bottom of global ranking in 2013
I just don't see what essentially any Russian citizen can do about this. If you do not have free elections and no representation of interests, then by definition you cannot also fix that stuff in any fashion. "We think we can treat you poorly because your government also does" is an especially poor sell to Russians.
> negotiations were always bound to become long and difficult due to unresolved issues around the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, radical muslims in rural Turkey, and a long list of other difficult subjects.
The point is, all of these issues also exist in Russia: Unresolved issues around Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as North Caucasus insurrections and its radical muslims. So if that didn't work for Turkey in 30 years, it will also not work for Russia. Case closed.
Getting into EU is comparatively easy for a small country, much harder for a larger one and for Russia (or Turkey) it is both impossible and infeasible. Real integration could only come in some other framework, which has never materialized, and as I can see nobody in EU even understands that it needed to be there. If you are an economic and defense bloc accepting new countries in, you should be very careful about countries you're not going to accept, as they rightfully see you as a threat.
I just don't see what essentially any Russian citizen can do about this. If you do not have free elections and no representation of interests, then by definition you cannot also fix that stuff in any fashion. "We think we can treat you poorly because your government also does" is an especially poor sell to Russians.
> negotiations were always bound to become long and difficult due to unresolved issues around the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, radical muslims in rural Turkey, and a long list of other difficult subjects.
The point is, all of these issues also exist in Russia: Unresolved issues around Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as North Caucasus insurrections and its radical muslims. So if that didn't work for Turkey in 30 years, it will also not work for Russia. Case closed.
Getting into EU is comparatively easy for a small country, much harder for a larger one and for Russia (or Turkey) it is both impossible and infeasible. Real integration could only come in some other framework, which has never materialized, and as I can see nobody in EU even understands that it needed to be there. If you are an economic and defense bloc accepting new countries in, you should be very careful about countries you're not going to accept, as they rightfully see you as a threat.