re: #519 Nyet
You can disagree, but what one thinks about one’s race/ethnicity is subjective, and you can think it even if the whole world disagrees.
But how you get on in society is the question, which makes your opinion of your own racial identity largely irrelevant.
Note also that you say, “Where I live now, people notice these things, much more so than in Russia, so it sort of made me think.” That sounds like society determining your race/ethnicity to me.