Putin Outranks Obama for World’s Most Powerful Person Second Year in a Row

Monica Sanchez | November 6, 2014
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Russian President Vladimir Putin beat out U.S. President Barack Obama for the number one spot on Forbes’ annual list of “The World’s Most Powerful People.”

This is the second consecutive year that Putin outranked Obama in influence.

Forbes gave the following reasons for Putin's position at the top: 

“We took some heat last year when we named the Russian President as the most powerful man in the world, but after a year when Putin annexed Crimea, staged a proxy war in the Ukraine and inked a deal to build a more than $70 billion gas pipeline with China (the planet's largest construction project), our choice simply seems prescient.

“Russia looks more and more like an energy-rich, nuclear-tipped rogue state with an undisputed, unpredictable and unaccountable head unconstrained by world opinion in pursuit of its goals.”

As an explanation for why Obama remained second on the list, Forbes noted how the U.S. President has been stymied both at home and abroad – specifically by the civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo., the West African Ebola outbreak, and the ongoing war with ISIS.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is among the newcomers on the list, ranking 54th.

Forbes issued a word of warning, however:

“One word sums up [President Obama’s] second place finish: caution. He has the power but has been too cautious to fully exercise it.”

Interesting – but haven’t they heard? He has a pen and a phone.

For the full list, click here.

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