La persona del año

La revista Time nombró a Vladimir Putin la persona del año.

Para la revista, ser considerado "la persona del año" no es un honor, un concurso de popularidad o un premio. Es, en sus palabras, un simple reconocimiento a las personas más poderosas y las fuerzas que dan rumbo -para bien o para mal- al mundo. En última instancia, la "persona del año" es un tema de liderazgo.

Aquí un párrafo del reportaje que explica su decisión:

Russia lives in history—and history lives in Russia. Throughout much of the 20th century, the Soviet Union cast an ominous shadow over the world. It was the U.S.'s dark twin. But after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia receded from the American consciousness as we became mired in our own polarized politics. And it lost its place in the great game of geopolitics, its significance dwarfed not just by the U.S. but also by the rising giants of China and India. That view was always naive. Russia is central to our world—and the new world that is being born. It is the largest country on earth; it shares a 2,600-mile (4,200 km) border with China; it has a significant and restive Islamic population; it has the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction and a lethal nuclear arsenal; it is the world's second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia; and it is an indispensable player in whatever happens in the Middle East. For all these reasons, if Russia fails, all bets are off for the 21st century. And if Russia succeeds as a nation-state in the family of nations, it will owe much of that success to one man, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Los artículos del reportaje los puedes consultar aquí.

Otro párrafo que me gustó del reportaje es uno que habla sobre la forma en que los rusos ven a su presidente. Aquí el párrafo:

How do Russians see Putin? For generations they have defined their leaders through political jokes. It's partly a coping mechanism, partly a glimpse into the Russian soul. In the oft told anecdotes, Leonid Brezhnev was always the dolt, Gorbachev the bumbling reformer, Yeltsin the drunk. Putin, in current punch lines, is the despot. Here's an example: Stalin's ghost appears to Putin in a dream, and Putin asks for his help running the country. Stalin says, "Round up and shoot all the democrats, and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue." "Why blue?" Putin asks. "Ha!" says Stalin. "I knew you wouldn't ask me about the first part."

En otras ocasiones, Time otorgó este reconocimieto a grupos de personas (y no a individuos en particular). En virtud de ello, si yo fuera elector en la revista, creo que hubiera votado por los universitarios y las personas que vigilaron la jornada electoral en la que el pueblo venezolano rechazó las reformas constitucionales que proponía Chávez. Aquí una entrada del tema.