Forbes voted Putin the most influential person in the world

American magazine Forbes has voted Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most influential person in the world.

In this year's ranking, Mr Putin surpassed US President Barack Obama, who topped the list last year. The ranking's creators said Mr Putin's victory over Mr Obama was due to his foreign policy victory over the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are both among the most influential people in the world (Source: THX/TTXVN)

In addition, according to American experts, the Russian leader has achieved better results in strengthening the government's operations than his American counterpart, who ranked second in the rankings.

The list of the five most influential people in the world this year also includes General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping (3rd); Pope Francis (4th) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (5th). The Forbes list also includes four other Russians: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (53), Chairman of Rosneft, Igor Sechin (60) and businessman Alisher Usmanov (63).

In the list of the most influential people in the world in 2012, Mr. Putin ranked 3rd, after Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel. The Kremlin reacted quite calmly to this event.

Russian President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said "let others comment on this event" and added that President Putin was very calm about the event./.

According to VNA