Person of the Year 2007

[chinthee]

Vladimir Putin

His final year as Russia's President has been his most successful yet. At home, he secured his political future. Abroad, he expanded his outsize—if not always benign—influence on global affairs.



Vladimir Putin - Person of the Year 2007 - TIME

[Silent Orchestra]

Did they count his vote?

I would like to thank many people. My doctors, nurses and hospital staff who are doing all they can for me, the British police who are pursuing my case with vigour and professionalism and are watching over me and my family. I would like to thank the British government for taking me under their care. I am honoured to be a British citizen.

I would like to thank the British public for their messages of support and for the interest they have shown in my plight.

I thank my wife Marina, who has stood by me. My love for her and our son knows no bounds.

But as I lie here I can distinctly hear the beating of wings of the angel of death. I may be able to give him the slip but I have to say my legs do not run as fast as I would like. I think, therefore, that this may be the time to say one or two things to the person responsible for my present condition.

You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed.

You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value.

You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilised men and women.

You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people

[chinthee]

Yeah, that poor spy got owned...

[Silent Orchestra]

Nothing poor about KGB spies.

He got what was coming to him.

[barbaro]

I think Time is a terrible magazine, with awful reporting. The "Man of the year award" is one of the biggest jokes ever. How do they decide? Who votes? Who nominates the candidates to be chosen?

The world is way too complicated to put one person into this charade. Time is going down the tubes, like a lot of other publications.

And I say this, being a former subscriber back in the early and mid 1990s.

[chinthee]

^yeah, but this is the most prestigious rag maybe worldwide.

So, your critique is more valuable than theirs?

[barbaro]

^yeah, but this is the most prestigious rag maybe worldwide.

I haven't seen the studies and polling, but I don't think it's prestigious at all. I think it ranks at the bottom.

So, your critique is more valuable than theirs?

Absolutely not.

I never stated nor implied that.

I stated that there should be no critique at all. No selection at all.

[chinthee]

So, name a more prestigious rag for us.

[Texpat]

Nothing poor about KGB spies.

He got what was coming to him.

Who? The patient or the president?

They were both KGBers and they both got what they had coming.

I looked for a "how we decided" story but there was none. I would think it difficult to find an army of editors with a more comprehensive understanding about what's going on in the world than Time. I too subscribed to Time (Asia) for about 10 years in the late 80s-90s. Thought their reporting excellent and their coverage complete. Admittedly, it's a gimmick, like Sports Illustrated's swimsuit knuckle-shuffle. But it's interesting nonetheless. You can always disagree with them.

Also, Time's The Year in images:

The Year in Images - Photo Essays - TIME

[barbaro]

So, name a more prestigious rag for us.

None are, that I know of.

I used to read a lot. Even Foreign Affairs.


But not anymore.

[chinthee]

So, you agree, TIME is as good as it gets.?

[Silent Orchestra]

Who?

Patient.

Imagine how many murders he sanctioned while in charge of the KGB.

[Happyman]

Why the F*ck do we need to be told who is the Person of the Year is by some group of un-named self appointed pundits working for a publisher who wants to fill his pages up with crap?
Ok your person of the year could well be some world figure but, in real terms, your personal Person of the Year could well be the lady at the local noodle stall that always greets you with a smile and makes your day - the lady who comes around and searches through your bins for something salvageable- lives a life of hardship but always has time for a pleasant "broken Thai" chat and likes to feed my birds ( I have an aviary)- the smile on her face when she does is worth bottling !
Real people not self important prats with PR teams keeping them in the limelight !
My sort of people

[barbaro]

So, you agree, TIME is as good as it gets.?

Pretty much. I will agree with that for the most part.

And no disrespect to your OP, CT.

It's a good topic (Putin, and where Russia is going, and what he's done.)

But I've become disillusioned with the American mags.

[November Rain]

If Putin is 'Person of the Year', I wonder what sort of bottom-feeding scum that makes the rest of us that inabit this planet. For him to be top, the rest of us have to be pretty damn low...

[skycop51]

Drew the world closer than ever back into the "cold world" we once knew. A world of Nuclear War Problabilities!

Man of the Year? So was Stalin/Hitler and now...

[skycop51]

Pictures sometimes say more than words can ever speak.

[Silent Orchestra]

You said it, Skycop.

Putin is a murdering bastard.

His only defence, is that they are all murdering bastards in his circles.

[November Rain]

The above 3 posts say it all, IMO.

[chinthee]

So, you agree, TIME is as good as it gets.?

Pretty much. I will agree with that for the most part.

And no disrespect to your OP, CT.

It's a good topic (Putin, and where Russia is going, and what he's done.)

But I've become disillusioned with the American mags.

Many years ago, I also had a subscription to Foreign Affairs. I just got bored with all the minutiae. The Economist would have to be my favorite rag still, even after so many years.

[barbaro]

^ Yeah, I like the Economist.

You have experience in Russia. Sounds linteresting, CT.

[Marmite the Dog]

I presume it was a close call between Bush and Putin for this prestigious award?

[chinthee]

^ Yeah, I like the Economist.

You have experience in Russia. Sounds linteresting, CT.

Putin is a very interesting figure. His early career was as a KGB foreign intelligence officer. He is a law grad from Leningrad, but got his break in politics by getting close to Anatoly Sobchak, the very famous mayor of St. Petersburg.

All my experience living in Russia was under Yeltsin, and briefly under Gorbachev. I was there during the fall of the USSR, and also in Moscow during the constitutional crisis (nearly civil war) when the White House was burned and it was the most deadly street fighting since the October Revolution.

It was truly amazing and historic to live there during those times, when this great empire fell.

[sabang]

I actually think Putin was a good choice for Times Person of the Year- can't think of anyone better this year anyway.
Bear in mind it does not have to be someone we like, or who is an ally. It is in terms of importance on the world stage in current events. Hitler was Time's Man around 1937.

[Texpat]

1927 Charles Augustus Lindbergh
1928 Walter P. Chrysler
1929 Owen D. Young
1930 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1931 Pierre Laval
1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1933 Hugh Samuel Johnson
1934 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1935 Haile Selassie
1936 Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson
1937 Generalissimo & Mme Chiang Kai-Shek
1938 Adolf Hitler
1939 Joseph Stalin
1940 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1942 Joseph Stalin
1943 George Catlett Marshall
1944 Dwight David Eisenhower
1945 Harry Truman
1946 James F. Byrnes
1947 George Catlett Marshall
1948 Harry Truman
1949 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1950 American Fighting-Man
1951 Mohammed Mossadegh
1952 Elizabeth II
1953 Konrad Adenauer
1954 John Foster Dulles
1955 Harlow Herbert Curtice
1956 Hungarian Freedom Fighter
1957 Nikita Krushchev
1958 Charles De Gaulle
1959 Dwight David Eisenhower
1960 U.S. Scientists
1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy
1962 Pope John XXIII
1963 Martin Luther King Jr.
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson
1965 General William Childs Westmoreland
1966 Twenty-Five and Under
1967 Lyndon B. Johnson
1968 Astronauts Anders, Borman and Lovell
1969 The Middle Americans
1970 Willy Brandt
1971 Richard Milhous Nixon
1972 Nixon and Kissinger
1973 John J. Sirica
1974 King Faisal
1975 American Women
1976 Jimmy Carter
1977 Anwar Sadat
1978 Teng Hsiao-P’ing
1979 Ayatullah Khomeini
1980 Ronald Reagan
1981 Lech Walesa
1982 The Computer
1983 Ronald Regan & Yuri Andropov
1984 Peter Ueberroth
1985 Deng Xiaoping
1986 Corazon Aquino
1987 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1988 Endangered Earth
1989 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1990 The Two George Bushes
1991 Ted Turner
1992 Bill Clinton
1993 The Peacemakers
1994 Pope John Paul II
1995 Newt Gingrich
1996 Dr. David Ho
1997 Andy Grove
1998 Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr
1999 Jeff Bezos
2000 George W. Bush
2001 Rudolph Giuliani
2002 The Whistleblowers
2003 The American Soldier
2004 George W. Bush
2005 Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, & Bono
2006 You

Some are a bit flakey, I suppose. How could Neil Armstrong not be on this list?