0
on Forbes Lists
#1 Powerful People (2016)
"The world's most powerful person for four years running, Russia's president has exerted his country's influence in nearly every corner of the globe; from the motherland to Syria to the U.S. presidential elections, Putin continues to get what he wants. Unconstrained by conventional global norms, his reach has magnified in recent years. In 2016 Russian hackers were accused of tapping into email accounts owned by members of the U.S. Democratic Party in a bid to aid the campaign of Donald Trump, who has regularly praised Putin's leadership style. The Kremlin denies the charges, and President-elect Trump has also dismissed the possibility of outsiders tampering in the election, despite a reported CIA memo suggesting otherwise. Either way, with a likely ally entering the White House, Putin's power may go largely unchecked for years to come."
Time's person of the year shouldn’t be Donald Trump – it’s clearly Vladimir Putin
by theGuardian
" Donald Trump should not have been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. That’s not to make the schoolboy error of presuming the award to be a badge of moral approval: I know it merely recognises the individual who has dominated the previous 12 months, for good or ill. (It’s why Time has no reason to regret handing the 1938 accolade to Adolf Hitler.)
Even so, and even though Trump was clearly the biggest news story of 2016, he still should not have won. For there is another figure who looms larger over this annus horribilis, albeit from the shadows. He ends this year with a wolfish grin, content that almost all his dreams have come true. That man is Vladimir Putin.
He surveys the global landscape and sees almost every sign pointing his way. From Aleppo to the White House, from post-truth to Brexit, this is the year the world was reshaped in his image. He may not have been the guiding hand behind every shift, though he certainly gave several of them a nudge, but together they made him 2016’s biggest winner."
Bookmarks