Are today's authoritarian leaders doomed to be indicted when they leave office? The Russian and other post-Soviet cases

The attitudes of leaders toward their personal future are very important to domestic and international politics. These views are particularly vital in the case of leaders of non-democratic regimes who could face legal prosecution for their corrupt acts or violations of human rights in their own country and abroad. In spite of these fears, however, the leaders in many authoritarian societies trespass laws, both domestic and international, in order to preserve their power and enrich their families. They expose themselves to the danger of the prosecution after they leave office or lose control of the regime. In this context, the author pays special attention to Vladimir Putin's political future and to the developments in Russia, which favor and disfavor his continued stay in power after 2008.     

Book reviews

Branko Lazitch and Milorad M. Drachkovitch, Lenin and the Comintern, Volume I. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1972. (Publications Series 106.) xiii + 683 pp. $17.50.

Karl‐Eugen Wadekin, The Private Sector in Soviet Agriculture. Edited by George Karcz. Second, enlarged, revised edition of Privatproduzenten in der sowjetischen Landzoirtschaft. Translated by Keith Bush. Berkeley, Calif, and London: University of California Press, 1973. xviii + 407 pp. $17.50.

Richard H. Ullman, The Anglo‐Soviet Accord. (Vol. III of Anglo‐Soviet Relations, 1917–1921.) Princeton, N.J. and London: Princeton UP, 1972. xv + 509 pp. £7.00.

Eloise Engle and Lauri Paananen, The Winter War. (The Russo‐Finnish Conflict, 1939–40.) New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973. xv+176 pp. $7.95.

Allen F. Chew, The White Death: the Epic of the Soviet‐Finnish Winter War. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1971. x + 313 pp. $12.50.

Geoffrey Jukes, The Soviet Union in Asia. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1973. 304 pp. £2.95.

Jaroslaw A. Piekalkiewicz, Public Opinion Polling in Czechoslovakia, 1968–69. Results and Analysis of Surveys Conducted During the Dubcek Era. (Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government.) New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972, and London: Pall Mall Press, 1973. xxix + 357 pp. £7.75.

Deborah D. Milenkovitch, Plan and Market in Yugoslav Economic Thought. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1971. (Yale Russian and East European Studies, 9.) x + 323 pp. $10.00. £4.50.

Robert G. Wesson, The Soviet Russian State. New York and London: John Wiley & Sons, 1972. x + 404 pp. £4.00. Condensed edition £1.95.

Joseph Nedava, Trotsky and the Jews. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1972. 299 pp. $6.00.

Joshua Rothenberg, The Jewish Religion in the Soviet Union. New York: KTAV Publishing House (for Brandeis University), 1972. (Series: Institute for East European Jewish Studies.) viii + 242 pp. $10.00.

Vladimir Petrov, Escape from the Future. Bloomington & London: Indiana UP, 1973. xiii + 470 pp. £3.75.