A 99-year-old Corsock man whose parents fled the Russian Revolution has condemned the invasion of Ukraine.
Ivan Tolstoy holds Vladimir Putin responsible for the war and hopes the brutal conflict can be stopped.
The naturalised US citizen, who has lived at Corsock for 46 years, had strong ties to the former Soviet Union.
But despite academic achievements in Russia Mr Tolstoy is fiercely critical of Putin and the destructive war he’s unleashed.
He told the News: “It is pretty terrifying what is happening in Ukraine.
“Putin is behaving very badly and is in danger of starting a worldwide conflagration.
“I have no confidence in the present Russian government that they will behave in a civilised fashion if they are given a free hand in Europe.
“Putin is an ex-KGB man with basically very little feeling of compassion for the misery that war could bring to a great many people – not only in Russia but across the world.”
During a stellar academic career on both sides of the Atlantic Mr Tolstoy delivered the keynote speech to the 1968 All Soviet Conference on Acoustics in Moscow.
And in 1989 he was made an honorary member of the Science Centre, Eastern Branch Akademya Nauk in Vladivostok.
But despite his scientific achievements in Russia he strongly condemned the actions of the present regime.
Mr Tolstoy also does not believe that NATO’s military expansion eastwards to the Russian frontier sparked the invasion.
He said: “Ukraine would like to join NATO and Russia wants to interfere in that.
“I have very little sympathy with the view that this war is somehow NATO’s fault.
“The Russians may feel that way – but I don’t know how honest that feeling is.
“Mostly they resent that these particular countries have joined hands with the West. But they have done so out of fear of the Russians.
“Russian history is such as to make people very cautious in dealing with Russia.”
He added: “This war is totally unethical – you can’t walk into a country and take it over just because you want to.
“NATO is creating a barrier against further expansion of Russia to the West.
“When you have somebody like Putin in charge it’s better to have some deterrent available – and NATO is that deterrent.
“NATO has just done the job of holding the line.
“Russia should be stopped – hopefully by non-military methods.”
Mr Tolstoy was born in the German spa town of Baden-Baden in 1923 and subsequently lived in France.
His aristocrat grandfather, Count Dmitri Ivanovitch Tolstoy, was a distant cousin of famed Russian writer Lev Tolstoy.
His daughters Eline and Maya were educated at Kilquhanity School near the village.
