Putin and Xi are the Laurel and Hardy of statesmen – but it’s no laughing matter | Simon Tisdall

China's paramount leader, like his Russian counterpart, is making a fine mess of his country's economy and world standing

It must be tough, being a dictator, when your diktats are ignored, thwarted and scorned. Vladimir Putin is a sad case in point. He ordered the glorious reintegration of Ukraine into his imaginary Russian empire. What he got was an existential crisis that he couldn't control.

China's president, Xi Jinping, is another paramount leader with dictatorship issues. Xi presumes to exercise supreme control, channelling Mao Zedong like a card-carrying Communist party Zeus - yet repeatedly messes up. Xi's signature tune could be the chorus to Moby's Extreme Ways: Then it fell apart ... Like it always does."