Time magazine named President Vladimir Putin its person of the year. The award, which is not considered an honour so much as a recognition of the most powerful forces shaping the world, was awarded for Putin's role in reshaping a country that Time's Managing Editor Richard Stengel said had "fallen off our mental map."
"At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, h" "Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech," he added. "He stands, above all, for stability - stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years."
Putin's latest coup is to have all but secured himself the post of prime minister if his protege Dmitry Medvedev becomes president, continuing his position among the top of Russia's leadership after eight years at the helm.
Former US vice-president and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore was named Time's first runner-up, followed by British author J.K Rowling, the creator of the blockbuster "Harry Potter" series. Last year the magazine named 'You' as its person of the year, reflecting the importance of user-generated Internet content as a force in the modern world.
Previous winners include Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and the computer. In 2005, U2 frontman turned anti-poverty campaigner Bono shared the award with Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and his wife Melinda. US President George W. Bush was chosen in 2004, following the American soldier in 2003 and a group of whistleblowers in 2002.
The first winner named after the September 11 attacks of 2001 was former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, despite suggestions from within Time's editorial department it should be al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
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