TIME Magazine had a choice for Person of the Year between Al Gore, JK Rowling, Vladimir Vladimirovitch, Hu Jintao, and General David Petraeus. Guess who they chose.
Да, Comrades! But this is not entirely surprising:

TIME’s Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse. It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership. Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years.

For Better Or For Worse…that’s what the choice is all about. We hope they can choose someone who’s made a truly positive difference, but sometimes that’s not the case.