History shows that reality will eventually catch up to Putin

Open this photo in gallery: Russian President Vladimir Putin receives winners of the Leaders of Russia national competition for public officials at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 12.SERGEI SAVOSTYANOV/Getty Images Aurel Braun is a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Toronto and an associate at Harvard University's Davis Center. One of the jokes that helped sustain people during the dark days of Soviet rule under Leonid Brezhnev was about elections: A panicked aide rushes into the Soviet leader's office and announces, "Comrade Brezhnev, I have terrible news. Someone broke into the Kremlin vault and…