Russian leader embracing Eastern Time sees light (7)
I believe the answer is:
lenient
'light' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'russian leader embracing eastern time' is the wordplay.
'russian leader' becomes 'lenin' (Vladimir Lenin).
'embracing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'eastern' becomes 'e'.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'lenin' placed around 'e' is 'lenien'.
'lenien'+'t'='LENIENT'
'sees' is the link.
(Other definitions for lenient that I've seen before include "Easy, soft" , "Inclined to let people off lightly" , "Light" , "Forbearing" , "Forgiving, soft" .)