Russian President Vladimir Putin was ranked first in the ranking of the world's most influential people by the U.S. Forbes magazine.
The Russian leader is ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama, who was in second place. Obama is followed by President Xi Jinping, Pope Francis, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In addition to Vladimir Putin, Russia was represented in the ranking by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (53rd place), the head of "Rosneft" Igor Sechin (60th place) and businessman Alisher Usmanov (63rd place).
Forbes ranking includes 72 political, economic, and social activists.
In 2007 the American magazine Time announced the President of Russia "Person of the Year" for enhancing the stability in the country and increasing Russia's role in the world.
Traditionally such ratings attract much attention, even excessive at times. For example, the rating of Foreign Policy magazine earlier this year called Vladimir Putin the most influential politician in the world and later refuted it, saying that this was a personal opinion of an analyst published in the magazine blog.
Pravda.Ru asked experts whether such ratings were objective and why they were so popular.
Political analyst Alexander Tsipko believes that Forbes' choice is quite understandable. "These are real events and real actions of Putin who influenced the world politics. These actions may have an impact on a global scale," he told Pravda.Ru.
According to the analyst, Putin's initiative has averted an invasion in Syria. "Of course, there are no guarantees that the United States has completely abandoned its plans against Syria, but at least for now it will be extremely difficult to fulfill such plans morally, internationally, and so on. I think the ranking is very objective," Alexander Tsipko said.
"The ratings are an interesting thing," said head of the Department of Applied Political Science of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Konstantin Simonov. "Many have questioned the methodology for such ratings, but human nature is such that these rankings by authoritative publications cause interest. Of course, any of them is a subject for debate. One can argue whether it is justified or not. "
"I personally think that Putin's first place is not only his merit, but an absolute understanding of the role of Russia in the world politics," said the analyst. He thinks that Russia reminded the word about itself in a number of major stories in politics.
"This is, of course, Syria," said Konstantin Simonov.
"The second story is Snowden. This is also a very complex political conflict that we had to resolve, and we've done it," said the expert.
"And, of course, the G20 summit in St. Petersburg," he added.
"It is understandable where the rating came from. This is Putin's personal success and understanding of the role that Russia plays in the modern global politics," said Konstantin Simonov.
Anton Ponomarev
Pravda.Ru