of politi- cal mastery rather than neutral measurements of pub- lic preference. Putin's victories at the polls enable him to reject comparisons with Leonid Brezhnev and other doddering, defensive Soviet-era leaders. Likewise, Hugo Chavez boasted that unlike the colonels and generals who ruled over South American

of politi- cal mastery rather than neutral measurements of pub- lic preference. Putin's victories at the polls enable him to reject comparisons with Leonid Brezhnev and other doddering defensive Soviet-era leaders. Likewise, Hugo Chavez boasted that unlike the colonels and generals who ruled over South America

y. Saudi Arabia these days is all too reminiscent of the dying decade of the Soviet Union, during which one decrepit leader succeeded another, from Leonid Brezhnev to Yuri Andropov to Konstantin Chernenko, before a younger and more open-minded Mikhail Gorbachev arrived too late to save a stagnant society and e

ns in 1947, 1949 and 1954 that all broke down according to tribal, regional and sectarian interests. Hafez finally ended the chaos by becoming the Leonid Brezhnev of the Arab world: He staved off the future by institutionalizing fear, even as he did nothing to nurture a civil society out of the country's inhe

Russian nationalists that Russia is ruled by the Jews. There used to be murky circles in the Soviet Union of my childhood in which it was held that Leonid Brezhnev and his Politburo were Jews. Today's nationalists, monarchists and other "real Russians" like to point out that Putin's entourage includes people