Since he had personally known virtually all of the world’s leaders over the last fifty years, we asked Lee about the qualities that distinguished the great ones from the bad ones and what he thought of those who were leading at the time. He rated Angela Merkel as the best leader in the West and considered Vladimir Putin one of the best leaders worldwide. He explained that leaders must be judged within the context of the circumstances they encounter and then went on to share his view of how difficult it is to lead Russia and why he thought Putin was doing it well.
