Russian President Vladimir Putin has been compared to many strongmen of the past — Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev and Chile's Augusto Pinochet, to name a few. But after nearly 14 years in power, perhaps the best comparison now may be a transgender cross between the former Argentine leader Juan Peron and his legendary wife, Eva ("Evita").
In the early 1940s, Colonel Peron, as Minister of Labor and Secretary of War, was a "gray cardinal" to Argentina's rulers. Before communism collapsed in 1989, Colonel Putin, also memorably gray, was a devoted KGB operative, entrusted with spreading disinformation and recruiting Soviet and foreign agents in East Germany.
At the labor ministry, Peron initiated social reforms, including welfare benefits for the poor. Although his motivation, at least in part, may have been a desire for social justice, Peron was, in effect, bribing the beneficiaries to support his own rise to power and wealth.