Russian President Vladimir Putin has been named as Time Magazine's "Person of the Year".
The title was awarded to Mr Putin for his "extraordinary feat of leadership" in bringing stability to Russia, said Time's managing editor.
Former US Vice President Al Gore and Harry Potter author JK Rowling were runners-up for the title.
Last year the award was given to all members of the public who had created or downloaded content on the internet.
'Not an honour'
The magazine has given out its Person of the Year award every year since 1927.
Previous recipients have included US Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
The title is "not an honour", but is given as "a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world - for better or for worse", according to the magazine.
Controversial recipients in the past have included Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Ayatollah Khomenei.
President Putin will be legally obliged to step down as Russian president next year, but is likely to become prime minister if his ally, Dmitry Medvedev, wins the presidential election in March.
Opinion polls suggest that Mr Putin is still very popular in Russia, but civil rights activists accuse him of cracking down on democratic opposition and free speech.
How do Russians see Putin? For generations they have defined their leaders through political jokes. It's partly a coping mechanism, partly a glimpse into the Russian soul. In the oft told anecdotes, Leonid Brezhnev was always the dolt, Gorbachev the bumbling reformer, Yeltsin the drunk. Putin, in current punch lines, is the despot. Here's an example: Stalin's ghost appears to Putin in a dream, and Putin asks for him help running the country. Stalin says, "Round up and shoot all the democrats, and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue." "Why blue?" Putin asks. "Ha!" says Stalin. "I knew you wouldn't ask me about the first part."
(a variation of an old Hitler joke about killing all the Jews and all the hairdressers)
I'm surprised the President of Iran wasn't a contender for "Person of the Year," considering the hell he's raised regarding Jews, homosexuals, and Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. (Anyone picture President A-however-the-hell-you-spell-his-name suing Time Magazine for denying him that "honor"?)
Vympel wrote:JK Rowling? WTF?
I second that. To my knowledge, no one has died in JK Rowling's name.
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
Sidewinder wrote:I'm surprised the President of Iran wasn't a contender for "Person of the Year,"
How is being a loud mouth worthy of person of the year?
Rowling at least you can say she's influnced many children's minds. The President of Iran changed nobody's mind: the poeple who deny the holocaust still do it, the people who are intelligent still laugh, and there was no war with Iran. A weaker choice than Putin by far and has the ugly consequence of boosting Bush's case for war with Iran.
Putin: a mildly "okay" authoritarian power. The state of things he preserves (controlled oligarchy) is not the worst that could be (near-anarchic oligarchy, thugocracy), but still pretty bad.
Why does this warrant "man of the year"? It's not as if Putin is winning World War III, IV or V... Don't know.
Most of the time Russians don't think of Putin. They think about their own bosses, who can kick them out of their jobs or give them a wage raise any day...
Lì ci sono chiese, macerie, moschee e questure, lì frontiere, prezzi inaccessibile e freddure
Lì paludi, minacce, cecchini coi fucili, documenti, file notturne e clandestini
Qui incontri, lotte, passi sincronizzati, colori, capannelli non autorizzati,
Uccelli migratori, reti, informazioni, piazze di Tutti i like pazze di passioni...
...La tranquillità è importante ma la libertà è tutto!
It was more appropriate had Russia been on the brink of collapse this year. But has it? All Putin did this year was beat the factionalized opposition and launch a few power plays to give Castro a run for the money for longest-lasting strongman.
Time wrote:There is already a new Putin joke: Putin goes to a restaurant with Medvedev and orders a steak. The waiter asks, "And what about the vegetable?" Putin answers, "The vegetable will have steak too."
Comments regarding whether or not Medvedev will be as useless as the joke suggests?
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
I second that. To my knowledge, no one has died in JK Rowling's name.
No but she has been indoctrinating the youth of America into tolerating Homosexuals, which of course is infinitely worse don't you know.
"May God stand between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk." - Ancient Egyptian Blessing
Ivanova is always right.
I will listen to Ivanova.
I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God.
AND, if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out! - Babylon 5 Mantra
They could have made a far worse choice. I'm not as well informed as our Russian colleagues, but I didn't get the sense that Russia was completely anarchic in the Yeltsin years (of course, I got all my info from CNN and Fox back then, so what did I know?)
As for the President of Iran, isn't his importance in his country about equal to that of Nancy Pelosi? It's the Supreme Ayatollah who holds the reigns of power in the county, if I remember my comparative government lectures correctly.
Turns out that a five way cross over between It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Ali G Show, Fargo, Idiocracy and Veep is a lot less funny when you're actually living in it.
I didn't get the sense that Russia was completely anarchic in the Yeltsin years
It wasn't completely anarchic. The amounts of banditism though were rising up to such levels with no or little interaction from authorities that for the people who experienced mistreatment this was as good as an anarchy.
Lì ci sono chiese, macerie, moschee e questure, lì frontiere, prezzi inaccessibile e freddure
Lì paludi, minacce, cecchini coi fucili, documenti, file notturne e clandestini
Qui incontri, lotte, passi sincronizzati, colori, capannelli non autorizzati,
Uccelli migratori, reti, informazioni, piazze di Tutti i like pazze di passioni...
...La tranquillità è importante ma la libertà è tutto!
