Putin, a former KGB official picked from relative obscurity to be prime minister in 1999 by then-President Boris Yeltsin, will appear on the cover of a special issue of Time as the person the editors believe had the greatest impact on events, for better or worse.
“He’s not a good guy, but he’s done extraordinary things,” said Time managing editor Richard Stengel, who announced Putin’s selection on NBC’s “Today Show.”
“He’s a new tsar of Russia and he’s dangerous in the sense that he doesn’t care about civil liberties; he doesn’t care about free speech; he cares about stability. But stability is what Russia needed and that’s why Russians adore him.”
Time magazine said on its Web site that Putin, the son of a factory worker whose grandfather cooked for Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, had led Russia with persistence, a sharp vision and a sense that he embodied the spirit of “Mother Russia.”
The Russian president beat out four rivals for the Time distinction: former US Vice President Al Gore, who was Time’s No. 2 choice, followed by British author J.K. Rowling, Chinese President Hu Jintao and the US commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.—Reuters