Putin remains most powerful person in the world: Forbes

Friday, 7 November 2014 00:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Forbes.com: No one would call Vladimir Putin a good guy. In 2014 he strong-armed his way into possession of Crimea and waged an ugly proxy war in neighbouring Ukraine, during which an almost certainly Russian-supplied surface-to-air missile downed a civilian jetliner. But as the undisputed, unpredictable and unaccountable head of an energy-rich, nuclear-tipped state, no one would ever call him weak. So who’s more powerful: the omnipotent head of a feisty former superpower or the handcuffed head of the most dominant country in the world? For the second year running, our votes went with the Russian President as the world’s most powerful person, followed by US President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Here is the top 15: 1: Russian President Vladimir Putin 2. President Obama 3. China’s President Xi Jinping 4. Pope Francis 5. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel 6. US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen 7. Microsoft founder Bill Gates. 8. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi 9. Google co-founder Sergey Brin 10. Google CEO Larry Page 10. Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron 11. Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud 12. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett 13. China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang 14. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim 15. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi