The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word IVAN
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
I
V
A
N
More clues leading to the result IVAN
- Russian fellow, one taking leading position
- Terrible ruler, one with leading position
- Denisovich perhaps one person leading way
- One commercial vehicle is Russian
- Russian front east of Iceland’s capital
- As owned by tiny delivery company?
- Russian leader out of bed
- One on the front line in Russia?
- Terrible leader, I lead
- Composer deleting first half ruler described as terrible
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Russian leader" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case russian leader = ivan.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.