NEW YORK (AFP) — Time magazine named President Vladimir Putin its person of the year Wednesday, recognizing the Russian leader's role in achieving stability even at the cost of Western-style freedom and democracy.
The award is not considered an honor so much as a recognition of the most powerful forces and individuals shaping the world, according to the magazine.
It was handed to Putin for reshaping a country that Managing Editor Richard Stengel said had "fallen off our mental map."
"At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power," Stengel wrote.
"For that reason, Vladimir Putin is Time's 2007 Person of the Year," he added, saying the Russian leader had made Moscow "a critical linchpin of the 21st century."
"If Russia fails, all bets are off for the 21st century. And if Russia succeeds as a nation-state in the family of nations, it will owe much of that success to one man, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," he wrote.
Putin, he added, "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 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 in March, continuing his position among the top Russian leadership after eight years at the helm.
In an interview with the magazine, Putin said Russia wanted to be a close ally of the United States but that Washington did not treat it as an equal.
"We want to be a friend of America," the Russian leader told the magazine, while adding: "Sometimes we get the impression that America does not need friends" but only "auxiliary subjects to command."
While the Kremlin celebrated Time's selection, US officials declined to comment. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said only that Putin was "a very intriguing figure in modern history" while the State Department sidestepped the question.
"I'm not in the business of helping Time sell its magazines," said deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
The magazine named former US vice president and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore its 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.
Late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini won the award in 1979, the year he helped lead the revolution that toppled the Shah. The controversial choice lost the magazine an undisclosed number of subscribers.
Source: AFP
The award is not considered an honor so much as a recognition of the most powerful forces and individuals shaping the world, according to the magazine.
It was handed to Putin for reshaping a country that Managing Editor Richard Stengel said had "fallen off our mental map."
"At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power," Stengel wrote.
"For that reason, Vladimir Putin is Time's 2007 Person of the Year," he added, saying the Russian leader had made Moscow "a critical linchpin of the 21st century."
"If Russia fails, all bets are off for the 21st century. And if Russia succeeds as a nation-state in the family of nations, it will owe much of that success to one man, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," he wrote.
Putin, he added, "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 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 in March, continuing his position among the top Russian leadership after eight years at the helm.
In an interview with the magazine, Putin said Russia wanted to be a close ally of the United States but that Washington did not treat it as an equal.
"We want to be a friend of America," the Russian leader told the magazine, while adding: "Sometimes we get the impression that America does not need friends" but only "auxiliary subjects to command."
While the Kremlin celebrated Time's selection, US officials declined to comment. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said only that Putin was "a very intriguing figure in modern history" while the State Department sidestepped the question.
"I'm not in the business of helping Time sell its magazines," said deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
The magazine named former US vice president and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore its 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.
Late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini won the award in 1979, the year he helped lead the revolution that toppled the Shah. The controversial choice lost the magazine an undisclosed number of subscribers.
Source: AFP
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