The Russian president Vladimir Putin has topped the list of world’s most powerful people by Forbes magazine. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel was placed second followed by US president Barack Obama. For the third time Mr. Putin has topped the list. Barack Obama became the first serving US president to miss the position in the top two ranks of the list.
The business magazine publishes the list of most powerful people annually and its seventh list comes after the Russian President announced more involvement in the Syrian civil war through air strikes. The visit of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s controversial president to Moscow was crucial for these developments. The Forbes observed that Mr. Obama is in the final year of his presidency and his influence is decreasing. Therefore taking decisions is going to be tough for the president. Obama’s approval ratings are going down too.
Along with the power, the willingness to use the power is also important factor in the rankings. Forbes noted that Mr. Putin has ability to do what he wants and can get away with it. Despite his dictatorial style of working, Russian president’s approval ratings were as high as 87 percent in August.
India’s Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi was placed at 9th position. Forbes wrote that Mr. Modi needs to push the BJPs reform agenda and governing 1.2 billion people needs more than shaking hands.
Pope Francis, leader of Roman Catholics was ranked at number four followed by Chinese Leader Xi Jinping at number five. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump were new entrants to the list. Country wise, US has the largest number of powerful people on the planet (30), followed by eight people from China.
