For the second time, Putin is named as the most powerful person of the year. This year over Obama who snatched #2.
For the second year running, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been naed the world’s most powerful person by a panel of Forbes editors.
Forbes says its list isn’t based on political influence, but an evaluation of “hard power” – the use of military and economic means to influence the behavior or interests of other political actors.
Putin came out top among 17 other heads of state, presiding over a combined GDP of $48 trillion. As reasons for the decision, the editors cite Russia’s acquisition of the Crimean peninsula, management of the international standoff over Ukraine and a $400 billion gas pipeline deal signed with China in May.
The business bi-weekly painted Russia under Putin’s rule in less than flattering terms, saying the country “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.”
http://rt.com/news/202527-putin-world-influential-man/
http://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/ 
