I was thinking Yuri Andropov, but the sentiment is the same.
I remember when the New Wave singer Joe Jackson was at the height of his popularity in the 80’s.... There was a photo of him standing on the street in new york, with a copy of the New York Post and the headline was “Andropov dead”... The photographer was obviously going for a “man on the street during important world event” effect.... But I remember thinking, “who cares about Andropov, he ain’t no Khrushchev, the USSR just aint what it used to be”