The preliminary deal reached last week by negotiators in Switzerland leaves many people worried that it won’t prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But what about Ramzan Kadyrov, the thuggish president of Chechnya, ending up with a few warheads of his own? Or Sergei Aksenov, a.k.a. Goblin, laying his hands on the nukes Russia threatens to deploy in annexed Crimea? It’s a nightmare scenario, but it may come true once Vladimir Putin goes. The truth is that anything is possible once Putin goes.

This year, May 9th in the former Soviet Union (and May 8th

everywhere else) will mark the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Hitler’s

Germany. It will be a huge deal in Moscow, where victory celebrations are

becoming more lavish every year, but for the rest of us it will be a far less

relevant event. After all, about 98% of the world’s population – including

Putin and his entourage – were born well after the end of World War II.