Ukraine President Zelensky & Vladimir Putin Features In Time’s 2022 List Of 100 Most Influential People

• Image Credit: Internet

• May 24, 2022 | Poonam Nath

Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin are present in the category of leaders.

Digital Desk: TIME has unveiled its list of the 100 most powerful individuals in the world in 2022, which includes a surprise. Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin are present in the category of leaders.

Although including both presidents on the list of the 100 most influential people may be problematic, TIME’s Editor-in-Chief and CEO explain it by saying, “When our team gets together to choose the TIME100, we have one barometer: influence. Who shaped the year? Who stood up? Who stood out? Influence, of course, maybe for good or for ill—a dichotomy never more visible than in this year’s TIME100, which includes both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. They are the poles of this list and of this moment. The Russian dictator behind a brutal war and his foe, the Ukrainian President, whose leadership has made him a rare heroic figure in our divisive time.”

President Zelensky’s description was written by none other than Joe Biden, the President of the United States of America (who is also on the list). “In President Zelensky, the people of Ukraine have a leader worthy of their bravery and resilience”. 

“The nations of the free world, inspired by President Zelensky’s example, are more united, more determined, and more purposeful than at any point in our recent memory,” he continues.

Alexei Navalny, a convicted Russian opposition leader, presently serving nine years in a maximum-security penal colony, wrote President Putin’s write-up. In his column, Navalny discusses the duck test, which states that “if anything looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s certainly a duck.”

“The same logic applies in this instance (to Putin): if someone kills independent media, organises political assassinations, and adheres to his imperial illusions, he is a crazy capable of causing a slaughter in the heart of Europe in the 21st century,” he continues.

The yearly list of influential people honours the year’s most significant pioneers, artists, titans, leaders, and icons worldwide.