The rise of the Russian Bear?

Apropos 'Putin beats Obama again in Forbes power ranking' carried by Business Recorder on November 6, the report says that for a second year in a row, Russian President Vladimir Putin has beaten US President Barack Obama to the title of world's most powerful leader as ranked by Forbes.
"In a year in which Russia annexed Crimea, stoked a conflict in Ukraine and clinched a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline deal with China that Forbes called the world's largest construction project, Putin remained on top. It was the third time in Obama's presidency that he has lost top billing - twice to Putin and once to Chinese leader Xi Jinping," according to the report. That a beleaguered Obama is faring bad is a fact that has found its best expression in the Republican takeover of the US Congress. The results of mid-term elections are profound setback to Obama and his fellow Democrats. Insofar as Putin is concerned, he has proved that he is good at Russian roulette; the Ukraine crisis has added to his profile. The Nato military exercises in one of the Baltic states has only contributed to widely-held perception that Russia, the successor of the Soviet Union, is now in a position to assert itself to the utter chagrin of the West. Secretary of State John Kerry seems to be fully conscious or aware of the challenge of the Russian Bear.