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GET IT OFF YOUR CHEST - Putin is Time magazine's Person of the Year, 2007. Do you agree?

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Patriot March 12, 2008, 21:27: It matters not who has been named before Putin or as to how many times they may have been listed. For many of those previously named, history has shown us to have failed themselves, their Nation and the World.

With or without Time Magazine's endorsement, Putin will be Putin. Putin has been good for Russia, Putin is a strong leader, and unwavering strength and conviction are frightening to some. The world was a safer place with Putin in charge of Russia; I do hope his successor has similar traits.
Sevodnya_Net March 11, 2008, 11:33: Not Mussolini, I'm afraid, unless there was a special Italian edition ...
Sam March 11, 2008, 10:51: My mistake
Bush actually was Twice,
Guess thats another negetive to the list.
Sam March 11, 2008, 10:48: This award was won by both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini

Do not think Mussolini ever did but Stalin did twice.
It was also won by Gandhi(1930)
Franklin Roosevelt (1932,1932 and 1941))
Haile Selassie(1935)
Winston Churchill (1949)
Our present Queen Elizabeth II (1952)
JF Kennedy (1961)
Martin Luther King Jr.(1963)
Just to name a few,Guess they were mostly correct then wrong on who were the great leaders of our times.
Bet Bush or Blair would have loved to be on such an impressive list:)
Link to the whole List
http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa050400a.htm
chris March 11, 2008, 01:52: This award was won by both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
sam March 3, 2008, 22:05: What ever way you would like to look at Putin or now Medvedov really does not matter.Dictator or not,he had rebuild the country and made her once again strong and now rich.
Maybe Russia does need a "dictator"
May I remind people that the president did not have the power the post has now.It too Yelsin who the west saw as a democratic friend, tanks to blow the parliament out of the white house( not USA ) to take all the power and the west saw no problem with that.
Ralf March 3, 2008, 21:09: Communism is not what it is in RUssia, sorry, but the dictatorship is only to gain power over the economy and to keep people in ignorance of what is really going on behind the curtain. Power is corruptive, and once a good thought is dissolved through man and his actions of greed.
Maco March 3, 2008, 14:48: So fare, Putin is the best thing that has ever happened to Russia in many years. And I beleave Medvedev will also be just as strong, smart and good for Russia. Only one downside I found about Russia in the world is its passiveness to anything America has done and does in the last 10 years. I think its about to change "we hope", and USA "UN aka NATO" will no longer be able to make and brake international laws as they please.

GO RUSSIA LOVE from Macedonia
Gazza March 3, 2008, 05:48: Marzipan6 February 27, 2008, 12:54
"Putin is a backward looking politician, grounded in the ethics and worldview of the KGB who continues to promulgate gross fantasies about Russia’s Soviet past, who has stopped democracy growing in Russia and condemned Russian people to a narrowly based, unrepresentative government of cronies that will prevent Russia from flowering and reaching its potential.
"

Blah blah blah... more anti-Putin crap from those who just cannot handle that Putin has rescued Russia from the clutches of the West, and that he has a popularity rating that Western politicos would kill for. Under the leadership of people like Putin, Russia has a bright future, rich on the back of energy and minerals, and technical prowess, and blessedly free from the malignant intent of the US and its cronies. US right-wingers are frothing at the mouth that Russia has not disintegrated and allowed Western ineterests to control its wealth and future. The filthy plans of the PNAC'ers will come to naught as the US falls into economic distress and the inevitable and irreversible decine in Amerikan power.
Forward Looking February 27, 2008, 16:17: Putin is a backward looking politician, grounded in the ethics and worldview of the KGB - I think someone forgot to add "Gun Toting"!

narrowly based, unrepresentative government - Someone asked the Russian people, yet, for their opinion/s?
Marzipan6 February 27, 2008, 12:54: Putin is a backward looking politician, grounded in the ethics and worldview of the KGB who continues to promulgate gross fantasies about Russia’s Soviet past, who has stopped democracy growing in Russia and condemned Russian people to a narrowly based, unrepresentative government of cronies that will prevent Russia from flowering and reaching its potential.
Prophet February 26, 2008, 13:16: If any time, sometime in the future, people in then Russia or around the world, look back in history and how they unfolded during the period 1990-2000, they will look at it as the most critical years, not only in the many centuries old Russian history, but probably in the history of the world.

Because during that time, Russia and indeed the world, was faced with two choices - Die or be reborn in a new 'AVATAR'.
For Russia was faced with ruination,disintegration,total elimination as a world player of any significance (there were talks of its removal from UNSC) and even worse, for I hesitate to say the word, extermination!
The world itself would have come under the total sway of "PAX AMERICANA", along with all trade routes and arteries. The world would and is still, to a very large degree, would have been just so much independent, as to form cheap labour markets for colonists and mass markets for its manufactured goods, SOLD at exorbitant prices.
Indigenous production facilities would have been shut down, due to various pressures, such as Climate controls, environment degradation and pollutin watch.
IN THEORY AS WELL AS PRACTICE, the world outside the Neo-Colonial area/s, would have become the "LEGALIZED HUNTING GROUND" - A return to the darkest Colonial period of the 17th/18th century...

Putin, in not only Time's person of the year (who cares about Time, anyways), but World's person of the Century!
For whatever reasons, call it luck, better management, extraordinary fortitude, he has not only given Russia a second lease of life, but along with it the world too!
And people wonder about his popularity? Strange!
Certainly, not only is he the most popular personality of Russia, but of the World too!
For rarely do people of his stature walk among us!
Alexandru February 25, 2008, 21:20: As outsider but wellknouwn with the democracy I am affraid that wil be never another Putin. At this verry moment Putin is the only one Stateman, to whom I gave my fully respect and consideration. But miracles are not lasting anymore then to count on three!
You Russian's you had had a chance in Putin, but you must be aware what is the real mening of western democracy. Don't believ in the fals prophecyies of the Promise Paradise of globalization as USA is to rule!
Sevodnya_Net February 18, 2008, 14:54: DD,
As I've often said before, if no one criticised anyone for fear of having the finger pointed back at them then it would be carte blanche for all sorts of crimes to go unchallenged.
I'm not sure you really want me to explain the Falklands, but briefly this was a disputed territory in the South Atlantic invaded in the early eighties by Argentina. Britain raised a naval task force to sail to the area and after a short but bloody conflict succeeded in re-taking them.
I have no opinion about whether it was correct or not but while one can compare the situations in Ireland and Chechnya there is no correlation whatever between the Falklands and Chechnya.
The Islands were - are - inhabited by British people. There was no ethnic rebellion going on. The Argentine invasion was carried out by a dictator trying to look macho to bolster his political standing and hoping that no one would bother to fight back. A debate still exists in Britain as to whether it was worth it. Naturally the Islanders believe it was...
DD February 18, 2008, 14:29: To Sevodnya:
Please explain to us the Falkland case, ok. Or do you finally have to agree that sometimes it is ridiculous to critisise Russia over something which is done regularly by Western states, and in all parts of the world?
It is very easy to give only critisism to Russia over everything, but it would be interesting to see how you explain Western acts.