Russia is no Darth Vader

This is in reaction to Ilya Perenkov’s letter (“Russia presents side in Russia-Ukraine relations,” Opinion, 6/23/15). I agree with his opinion 100 percent. It is a complicated matter that European thinking may find hard to understand. But the conflict is within Ukraine. Just as the conflict in Mindanao is within the Philippines.

There are no Russian troops in Ukraine. Maybe there are some volunteers who are from Russia, but they are there fighting for what they believe in. The Russian army has no troops in Ukraine. This reminds me of the French Foreign Legion, in which my father was an officer; it consisted of volunteers from around the world.

We are now in 2015. Once and for all, let’s banish the thought that Russia is always the Darth Vader on Earth and the rest of the world is Luke Skywalker. That is not the reality. That is science fiction.

—JÜRGEN SCHÖFER, PhD, [email protected]