Russian prez Putin tops Forbes ranking of the world’s most powerful

New york, November 06.  Russian President Vladimir Putin takes the top spot out of 72 on Forbes ’ sixth annual ranking of “The World’s 72 Most Powerful People” for the second year in a row.

The Russian President retained his spot as a result of flexing his muscles on the world stage by annexing Crimea, staging a proxy war in the Ukraine and inking a deal to build a more than $70 billion gas pipeline with China, which is the planet’s largest construction project.

The top 5 positions are unchanged from last year, with President Barack Obama remaining in second place ahead of General Secretary, Communist Party of China’s Xi Jinping, Pope Francis and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-chair Bill Gates is in the seventh position with Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin two spots behind Gates at number nine jumping from their previous position of number 17. Meanwhile,UK Prime Minister David Cameron is in the tenth position.

Among the 12 newcomers to this year’s list are Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi who is at number 15. On Modi, Forbes said “India’s newest rockstar doesn’t hail from Bollywood. He is the newly elected Prime Minister who sailed into office in May with a landslide victory, ushering the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into power after decades of control by the Gandhi dynasty.”

A notable omission from the list is Congress India president Sonia Gandhi, who was the highest ranked Indian last year at 21.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at 22nd position and North Korea Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un at 49th position are the youngest on the list, at ages 30 and 31, respectfully.

Alibaba CEO and China’s richest man Jack Ma is at number 30.

Similarly, recent entry to the list is ISIS “Caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at the 54th position. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen rises from last year’s 72nd position to 6th after her confirmation as Federal Reserve Chair in January 2014.

This years Forbes list includes, thirty-six percent billionaires, with their combined net worth in excess of $790 billion. Six of the Most Powerful are from China, three are from India, two are from Hong Kong, and one is from Taiwan. Twenty-six are from the US.

Several factors were taken into account to select the 72 people that matter from the 7.2 billion people on the planet: the amount of money they control; the number of people they impact; their total spheres of influence; and how actively they wield their power. Agency