The Most Powerful Person

The American magazine Forbes has declared Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin as the world’s most powerful leader in 2013. Putin’s importance is also because he has earned this position by leaving behind the US President Barack Hussein Obama. After 2009 this is the first time when US President is not selected as the most powerful person.

Putin’s approach towards Syrian nuclear weapon crisis is more effective than Obama which showed that internationally Putin has been able to impress more people by going against America for war with Syria. The regular report on use of chemical weapon by Syria made the US President Barack Obama to declare war against Damascus capital of Syria, but Putin with the help of documents leaked by Edward Snowden associated with America’s National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) forced Obama to act on it. Due to the leaked documents by Snowden America has to face embarrassment in front of the whole world. He also disclosed such documents that states, America was spying on leaders of 34 different countries.

Vladimir Putin had never thought that providing asylum to Edward Snowden would be so profitable. America has found Snowden guilty of leaking important government documents, and Snowden asked Moscow for asylum and Putin accepted it, till then he had revealed such things that have put America into trouble. During these days America has tried everything to force Putin to deliver Snowden to America but nothing of their attempts was successful. Barack Obama also threatened to abolish trade pacts with Russia but all these threads did not even moved Putin an inch, instead he did something which annoyed the US president Barack Obama the most. Putin not only gave protection and shelter to Snowden but also gave employment with huge pay in a Russian website firm. Obama’s position has also clenched down because of internal issues. Lack of support by opposition party in America to Obama has caused continues shutdown for 16 days, during these days all the government offices were also closed.

Only leader at home

Vladimir Putin can think of becoming the most powerful and influential person in the world because in Russia there is no other person to challenge his leadership, for the last two decade he has been ruling the country. The credit to bring Putin into current politics goes to the acting president Boris Yeltsin, who made him Prime minister and Putin at the same time proved himself as a successful leader.

In year 2000 presidential election Putin won against Boris and he repeated the same in 2004 presidential election. In 2004 also he would have stood for presidential election if there would not have been any constitutional barriers, in Russia there is a rule that a person cannot stand for presidential election for continuously three times. In order to break this Putin became Prime minister and helped his faithful Dmitry Medvedev to become as country’s President. During these days he increased the duration of president from 4 to 6 years.

In 2012 presidential election once again Putin was back, but this time it was a tough challenge. In lower house of Russian parliament State Duma, Putin’s United Russia Party emerged victorious with huge difficulty. In this election also he was blamed that he was victorious by unfair means. In the final election also he was blamed for unfair play and he has to face lot of protest by opposition party who were supported by young youths in the country. It was assumed that this protest would withdraw Putin’s root from politics but it did not happened and he emerged victorious for the third time as President and at the same time Putin helped Dmitry Medvedev to be the Prime Minister.

People’s Faith

Though there were lot of protest before and after election against Putin but still there is a huge mass who believe in Putin as their hero. The oppositions also cannot deny the fact that Putin is the one who has drove the country during the time of difficulties and stabilize the country’s economy. Boris Yeltsin when in 1999 made Vladimir Putin as Prime minister at that time Russia was struggling for its identity. The country was broken from 1991 recession and was struggling from it. In these days when in May 2000, Putin stood for presidential election the whole country was hoping a lot from him and the people helped him to be victorious with huge vote.

After coming into power Putin did historic work. Putin’s decision to Fight against Cheka strictly impressed the people a lot, he promised to make Russia a modern and strong country and also talked about stabilizing the government budget along with controlling rising inflation in the country. After 9/11 incident in America Putin promised to give full support to America at the same time he opposed the idea of military training in Iran and supported Germany and France in the idea to refer to such issues to United Nation.

Not an easy way ahead

There is no denying the fact that Putin it doing the right thing, but at the same time it is giving rise to lot of challenges for Putin. The questions arising during last presidential election shows that the country needs a transparent election procedure. Russia is also suffering from corruption which is a major problem in the country. Putin who had been a lieutenant colonel of Russian intelligence bureau Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (KGB) also agrees to the fact that the country is suffering from corruption. In corruption Russia has also left behind India. “Transparency international” has kept Russia at 154^th place out of 187 countries in corruption index where as India’s ranking is 87, from the current report issued on black money stored in all the banks throughout the world Russia is in second place.

Putin already has the challenge to stabilize country’s economy, recession has also strike Russian economy. The economic growth rate has gone down below 5 %, unemployment rate is rising has put Putin in hard times. Now, slowly the rise in economy can be seen and the Ruble exchange is stabilizing and foreign exchange deposit is increasing day by day. The effect of 30 Billion Ruble spend during economic crisis can be seen now.

Relation with India

Russia’s relation with India has always been good from the past, but to strengthen this relation Putin plays an important role. It is Putins’s presence that kept the relation unaffected in spite of America’s various attempts to abolish it. It can be seen when India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Russia, Putin didn’t even thought for a while to put aside the protocol to show his affection. In spite of this many huge arms deal is acting as a bottle neck. At the same time investment of many government and private companies of Russia has been stuck in India. On one side for India, MIG fighter plane taken from Russia is a huge problem and on the other hand the payment date for battle port submarine deal by Russia is an issue. Though in Kudankulam Tamil Nadu the nuclear project taken by Russia will soon start generating electricity but it has already been late due to local protest. There was a time when Russia and India’s relation were based on mutual views but now it is based on business and country’s growth. The new environment demands more precaution and alertness, hope that Putin’s age would improve the relation between both the countries.

Relation with Pakistan

During last few years in terms of international politics, no matter how fast India went close to America at the same speed Russia went close to Pakistan. The closeness between both the countries can put India into trouble as about 70% of India’s weapon comes from Russia. If the closeness between Russia and Pakistan is increasing, it is largely because of New Delhi the capital of India who was not able to adapt to the changing environment. In 1971 war Russia has supported India till end. America and Britain in December 1971 has tried their best to protect Pakistan, in this prohibition by American navy in Bay of Bengal and emergence of American and British soldier’s on the shore of Gate way of India is also included but soviet Russia’s submarine fought them out.

Putin in news

At this age Vladimir Putin’s private life is in highlight, he had divorced his wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva, and his affair with State Duma deputy Alina Maratovna Kabaeva is in news. Kabayeva’s statement in a TV show has increased the suspense between their relations just after Putin’s divorce. Kabayeva is a gold medalist in gymnast at the same time she is also Putin’s United Russia Part’s deputy. For the last five years their affair has been in news but both have been denying on this relation.