Forbes magazine named Russian President Vladimir Putin the most powerful man in the world on Wednesday, ranking the autocratic leader ahead of US President Barack Obama.
Obama had held the top spot for every year that the rankings have been published, except for 2010, when Hu Jintao, the former leader of China was number one.
Forbes said that the showdown at the UN Security Council this year over Syria, and the treatment provided in Moscow to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, illustrated “the shifting individual power dynamics” at play on the global stage.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ranked 26th on the list. Several other Jewish individuals featured prominently, including seventh-ranked Ben Bernanke, the outgoing chairman of the US Federal Reserve, and Google cofounder Sergey Brin, who ranked 17th. Facebook cofounder Matt Zuckerberg ranked 24th, Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs came in at 27th place, and the world’s richest mayor, Michael Bloomberg, snuck into the top 30, in 29th position.
According to Forbes, the Most Powerful People in the World list is comprised of the 72 individuals whom the editors believe “truly rule the world,” one for every 100 million people on earth.
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