Alexander Lukashenko has been the president of the Eastern European country of Belarus since 1994. Since 2020, he has come under increasing pressure from Western powers to resign, after he refused to accept his defeat in that year's national elections. However, Vladimir Putin's influence in Belarus casts a longer shadow than the 5'6" Russian president does in real life, and Lukashenko's rule has so far endured. My guest for this episode is John Sweeney (@johnsweeneyroar on Twitter), formerly of the BBC programmes Newsnight and Panorama, and currently the host of the podcast Hunting Ghislaine.

Boris Yeltsin served as President of the Russian Federation from 1991 until 1999. Yeltsin's political career spans the decline and fall of the Soviet Union,  the end of the Cold War, and Russia's difficult transition to capitalism and democracy in the 1990s. Though initially very popular in Russia, his approval rating reached single digits by the time of his resignation, which led the way for the authoritarian presidency of Vladimir Putin. My guest for this episode is Dr Marc Berenson of the Russia Institute at King's College London. 

Muammar Gaddafi was the "Brotherly Leader" of Libya from 1969 until 2011. Few figures in Middle Eastern politics court as much controversy as the highly eccentric Gaddafi, with his idiosyncratic style having been parodied by actors, and mimicked by other politicians. Gaddafi's long rule can be seen as an agonising decline from popular anti-imperialist "saviour" of Libyans in the 1970s to cruel and isolated despot murdered by his own people in 2011.  My guest for this conversation is Tim Niblock, emeritus professor at the University of Exeter, and one of Europe's foremost voices on Libyan and Middle Eastern politics; he also met Gaddafi during the late 1990s.

Antonio Salazar was the leader of Portugal from 1932 until 1968. Though a conservative dictator, Salazar was suspicious of the populist and fascist tactics used by contemporaries Hitler and Mussolini, instead opting to build a highly effective non-political state. The relatively benign dictatorship that Salazar created, together with the instability of the democracy that has taken its place, means his legacy is hotly disputed within Portugal. My guest for this conversation is Professor Tom Gallagher, professor emeritus at the University of Bradford and author of Salazar: the dictator who refused to die. Find him on Twitter: @cultfree54

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been the leader of the Turkish Republic since 2003, either as prime minister or president. Erdoğan's erratic tendencies have made him one of the most talked-about leaders in the world, and a headache for the US, the EU, and NATO. However, it is within his own country where Erdoğan's leadership is most polarising, with his Islamist outlook cutting against the traditionally secular Turkish Republic. My guest for this conversation is Times journalist and author of Erdoğan Rising, Hannah Lucinda Smith (@hannahluci on Twitter).

Indira Gandhi served as prime minister of India twice between 1966 and her assassination in 1984. Gandhi is best remembered for the Emergency (1975-1977), a period during which she effectively suspended Indian democracy. My guest for this conversation is Dr Vernon Hewitt, formerly of the University of Bristol, who wrote his PhD on the Emergency. 

Silvio Berlusconi served as Italian prime minister three times between 1994 and 2011. Love him or loathe him, his political skill cannot be denied. In an era of populism, his often dangerous tactics also need to be recognised and understood. My guest for this conversation is Professor John Foot of the University of Bristol (@Footymac on Twitter).