1980s: Gorbachev announces to the Soviet Communist Party in 1987 that it is time to inaugurate competitive elections with multiple-party ballots, replacing the no-choice ballots in place since the 1920s.

Today: Vladimir Putin, a member of the Unity Party, is the Russian president. The Russian people have enjoyed a full decade of open elections in which the Communist Party candidates could lose.

1980s: Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union are unfriendly. The United States condemns the Soviet crackdown against Polish dissidents and denounces the Soviet role in the shooting down of a South Korean civilian aircraft over its airspace.

Today: Relations between Russia and the United States have improved considerably since the 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. U.S. President George W. Bush, during a visit with Russian President Putin, announces that the United States no longer considers Russia...