From a New York Times column by Thomas L. Friedman headlined “Putin and Netanyahu Show Why Bad Things Happen to Bad Leaders”:

It is shocking to me how much Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu have in common these days: Both see themselves as great strategic chess players in a world where, they think, everyone else knows only how to play checkers. And yet both completely misread the world in which they were operating.

In fact, they misread it so badly that it looks as if each is not playing chess or checkers but rather Russian roulette — all by themselves. Russian roulette is not meant to be played alone, but alone they both are.