I know that many of my friends spend too much time on MySpace to read the middle of the paper, so I thought I'd bring the 'Net up to speed on the recent news of leadership changes in second-rate nations.

Once-mighty Russia has been ruled since 1999 by ex-KGB spook Vladimir Putin, who is termed-out after winning two presidential elections. His political party, United Russia, chose Dmitry Medvedev, chair of tyrannical energy monopoly Gazprom, as its presidential candidate for next year. To nobody's suprise, Mr. Medvedev promptly asked Mr. Putin to serve as prime minister. Mr. Putin will find the role familiar - it was the position from which he ascended the presidency after the sudden resignation of Boris Yeltsin.

In the Ukraine, the prime ministership has passed (again) to Yulia Timoshenko, a self-made energy billionairess who lost her previous premiership over allegations of corruption. But who cares how she made her money in the post-Soviet '90s? She has great hair.



South Korea just elected as president Lee Myung-Bak, a former tycoon and Seoul mayor whose popularity can be partially attributed to tearing down a highway to create a public riverside park. Of course, he was CEO of the company that built the highway in the first place, but South Koreans seem to be a forgiving lot. He'll be the first Christian president of the country that recently overtook Canada in GDP, but his alleged ethical lapses (including falsifying his address to send his kids to better schools, falsely claiming his kids as employees for tax benefit, and possible involvement in a stock-price manipulation scheme) are forgiven by his priest, who told the NYT that Mr. Lee has led "a life that's as Christian as possible." I wish my religion were so flexible!

Incoming puppets, plutocrats and presidents, I salute you.