In his column this morning, Nick Kristof says: “Mr. Putin has steered Russia from a dictatorship of the left to a dictatorship of the right.”

Now, let’s see: Putin has nationalized the news media, thrown businessmen in prison, violated property rights, and probably arranged for the poisoning of a foreign leader.

Yeah, those sound like the policies favored by the “right,” you know, Rich Lowry, Paul Wolfowitz, Newt Gingrich, Mark Levin — that whole right-wing crowd that occasionally gathers in Kate O’Beirne’s living room.

Our friends at the Weekly Standard (Scrapbook, 12/13/04) noticed something similar. The Washington Post calls Iran’s mullahs – the ones who have broken with centuries of Shia tradition — “conservatives.”

Robin Wright has even identified Iranian “neo-conservatives” whose “platform mixes religious ideology with aspects of modernity.” Yeah, Tony Snow and Gary Bauer would feel right at home.