Vladimir Putin
AGE: 54
OCCUPATION: President of the Russian Federation
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 1
PRO: Popular president of a nuclear power with a permanent seat on the Security Council that happens, these days, to be awash in oil money. Russia under Putin is asserting itself once again as a global power.
CON: The media have been stifled during his tenure; and critics of the Kremlin tend to die in the oddest of ways. And though Putin can't run for reelection next year due to term limits, he has managed to concentrate power in his hands and will remain a king-maker.