I would call Russians European because they have cultural roots with Europe such as sharing music, dance, language, history, government, etc. There are Asiatic Russians who are more similar to native Americans that I would not call European. They grow in concentration the further east you go. I would call Iranians Iranians and most middle easterners Arabs. Calling everyone east of Europe "Asian" seems, to me, an eradication of information value. Might as well just call them easterners. It doesn't really tell you anything about who you're referring to.