Nationality is a tricky little devil to pin down.

Just answering the question of whether I´m an Englishman or a Brit sends me into a cold sweat. That´s before you throw in all the other non-national allegiances I have - Northerner, Yorkshireman, Leodiensian (that´s the posh term for someone from Leeds) and more.

This, moreover, after having spent most of my university courses in social sciences learning that nationality is an “imagined community” - an invention of modern social development (for more on that argument look up the author Benedict Anderson. Nick Griffin, if you´re reading, you should too).

Defining or asserting a person´s nationality necessitates taking into account a host of political, social, legal and philosophical factors. As such it´s highly complex and easy to misunderstand. So the current vogue debate over whether Fabio Capello should pick Mikel Arteta for England is giving me grief. As of today, in an homage to that great footballing philosophe Joey Barton, I will be growing a wispy moustache until radio phone-in shows take the Arteta issue off air.

Over in Russia, though, a similar debate is currently taking place - and it´s one that is no less intractable.

For the Russian version of events substitute Arteta´s name for that of 23-year-old Brazilian striker Welliton Soares de Morais, known simply as Welliton.

Signed by Spartak Moscow in the summer of 2007, Welliton has been nothing short of a phenomenon in the Russian Premier League. After a tricky bedding-in period in Moscow, he scored 21 goals in just 28 league starts last year to top the Russian scoring charts. In doing so he broke the single-season scoring record for a foreigner in Russia, held by fellow Brazilian Vagner Love of CSKA.

This season, as unlikely as this may sound, he has if anything improved. His current haul of 13 goals in 14 domestic starts has Welliton again sitting pretty atop the high scorers table, but is amplified by the fact that, though improving, Spartak are currently in mid-table. And the striker has gone goal crazy in recent weeks. On his last two league outings, against Lokomotiv and FK Tom, Welliton scored successive hat-tricks.

All of which has led to calls from many in the Russian game for Welliton to be granted international honours for Russia, which in turn have provoked an Arteta-esque maelstrom in the press.

The footballing arguments are pretty clear. After failing to qualify for this summer´s World Cup after a play-off defeat to Slovenia - a country which, with two million citizens, has less than half the population of St Petersburg - the Russian national team are looking for a fresh start under new manager Dick Advocaat.

Russia can count upon a wealth of striking talent. Roman Pavlyuchenko has shown real quality when given the opportunity by Harry Redknapp at Tottenham. Pavel Pogrebnyak has been unfortunate with injuries, but has settled in well at Stuttgart. In Russia´s domestic league Aleksandr Bukharov, a recent €12m purchase for Zenit from Rubin, is also highly-regarded, as is Lokomotiv´s Dmitry Sychev. But none of these can be considered anywhere near as prolific as Welliton, who is a natural goalscorer. It seems like the perfect fit.

And Welliton himself has been making all the right noises about a potential switch of footballing allegiances. With seemingly little chance of him breaking into the Brazilian national team he has made clear that he would be happy to be considered for selection to the Russian side. And his goalscoring exploits have made him extraordinarily popular -  as football commentator Vladimir Maslachenko said of Welliton this week: “Even old ladies in Russia love him, so he must be alright.”

Granted, Welliton´s Russian isn´t fantastic (three years on from his transfer to Moscow he still conducts his post-match interviews in Portuguese). But he has at least made some obligatory nods towards becoming an accepted member of the nation by, er, bedding a Russian reality TV star, Viktoriya Bonya. And hey, his language skills can´t be so bad if he managed to chat her up now, can they?

And fortunately for Welliton, should the need arise, Russia´s legal system allows for a swift rubber-stamping of his Russian passport. Unlike in the UK where a foreigner must be resident for a minimum of five years, Russia has a special clause in the law on taking citizenship which cuts the period of obligatory residence down to just one year “for those who have distinguished themselves in the fields of science, technology and culture…who through their qualifications can represent the interests of the Russian Federation”. Simples.

So what´s the big deal, you ask.

Naturally the same arguments made in England concerning Mikel Arteta have been trotted out in Russia, specifically the ones surrounding how “appropriate” it would be for a man born and raised in South America to represent the country.

Another similarity to England is some of the double standards being applied to talk about Welliton´s case. We all know that John Barnes, John Salako and Owen Hargreaves were born outside the UK and yet consider Arteta a different case. Similarly, in the post-Soviet period plenty of players have appeared for the Russian national team despite not being born there.

When the Soviet Union collapsed the footballing authorities gave USSR´s footballers the right to choose which national side of the Soviet Union´s many successor states they wished to play for. Hence, for example, former Manchester United and Everton winger Andrey Kanchelskis, born in Ukraine to a Lithuanian father, nevertheless turned out for the Russian national team in the early-mid 1990s - and he was by no means the only one.

So, to ask a provocative question, if it´s alright for a Lithuanian-Ukrainian to turn out for Russia, why not a Brazilian?

The suspicion is that much of the fuss over Welliton is racially-motivated. The appearance in Russia´s colours of a black man would represent an enormous sea change in attitudes towards Russian-ness, and not one that would necessarily go down all that well with many members of Russian society.

In a country where old-fashioned racism dies hard, Welliton has born the brunt of some spectacularly crass abuse from the stands. On his second appearance for the club in Samara in 2007 a section of his own (!) supporters held up a banner which read: “The number 11 shirt belongs to Tikhonov [Andrey, a popular player sold by Spartak seven years previously] - go home monkey.” This, to accompany the monkey chants you can often hear around Russia´s football stadiums.

The current debate has only stirred the pot further. On a Spartak Moscow forum one fan writes: “There is no place for negroes in our national team.” Meanwhile Spartak´s biggest rivals CSKA also throw in their two-penn´orth. Asked why he opposed Welliton´s selection, one CSKA fan wrote: “The fact that he plays for Spartak never occurred to me. It´s that he´s a negro. This is the Russia national team, do you understand? I´m not a racist but this is a complete joke.”

Russia coach Dick Advocaat, the man whose opinion matters most regarding Welliton´s citizenship, has been circumspect about whether he intends to call up the Brazilian. This is unsurprising, as Advocaat once managed Zenit St Petersburg - the only team in Russia´s top flight never to have signed a black player.

Advocaat once commented that he knew full well that his club´s fans were racists. Perhaps this is what is holding him back from making a firm decision on Welliton.

However, the Dutchman may have to act fast. Rumours abound of a potential multimillion Euro transfer for Welliton out of Russia to one of Europe´s top leagues, most recently to Real Mallorca who are managed by Welliton´s former manager at Spartak Michael Laudrup.

If he does indeed leave Russia, the chances of Welliton being granted citizenship would appear slim. Moreover, the chance for Russia to take a positive stance against racism would be lost. It´s a case that makes Arteta´s look positively rosy in comparison