Once again, President Obama has taken second fiddle to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who took the top spot on Forbes’ latest “World’s Most Powerful People” list.
Putin was named the world’s most powerful last year, and the year before as well.
To compile the list, Forbes considered four areas: whether the person had power over lots of people; the level of financial resources the person controlled; whether the person was powerful in more than one area; and whether the person actively used his or her power.
A panel of editors ranked the candidates separately, and then those with the highest scores were placed on the list.
“Putin emerged as the world’s most powerful person for the third year running,” Forbes said. “Putin continues to prove he’s one of the few men in the world powerful enough to do what he wants – and get away with it. International sanctions set in place after he seized Crimea and waged war by proxy in the Ukraine have kneecapped the Ruble and driven Russia into deepening recession, but haven’t hurt Putin one bit: In June, his approval ratings reached an all–time high of 89 percent.”
Second on the list was Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel. Last year, she was placed No. 5Â on the list.
“Merkel is the backbone of the 28–member European Union, and her decisive actions dealing with the Syrian refugee problem and the Greek credit crisis helped bump her up the list,” Forbes reported.
And Obama?
“U.S. President Barack Obama fell one spot on this year’s list to Number Three,” the news outlet wrote. “There’s no doubt that the United States remains the world’s greatest economic, cultural, diplomatic, technological and military power. But as Obama enters the final year of his presidency, it’s clear his influence is shrinking and it’s a bigger struggle than ever to get things done. At home, his approval ratings are perpetually stuck under 50 percent; abroad, he’s outshined by Merkel in Europe and outmaneuvered by Putin in the Middle East.”
