Time magazine names Russian President Putin 'Person of the Year'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Time magazine on Wednesday named Russian President Vladimir Putin its "Person of the Year." The 2007 honor went to the Russian leader because of the 55-year-old Putin's "extraordinary feat of leadership in taking a country that was in chaos and bringing it stability," said Richard Stengel, Time's managing editor. "He's the new czar of Russia and he's dangerous in the sense that he doesn't care about civil liberties, he doesn't care about free speech," Stengel said. He said that Putin is popular among Russians, who believe that he is largely responsible for bringing a much-needed dose of stability to a country that edged into disorder after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Others who were in the running included Nobel Prize-winner Al Gore and author J.K. Rowling.