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Russians name their men and women of the year
Interfax

Moscow, 27 December: The majority of Russians - 57 per cent - have named President Vladimir Putin man of the year.

Interfax on Thursday [27 December] obtained this information from the All- Russian Centre for Public Opinion and Research, VTsIOM, which recently conducted a representative interview poll of 1,600 respondents. Those polled were requested to name four or five Russian or foreign citizens who deserved this title. The poll revealed that all the other people mentioned by the interviewees received a significantly smaller share of the vote than Putin.

Following the Russian president in the poll are US President George W. Bush (7 per cent), Russian Emergencies Minister Sergey Shoygu (6 per cent), international terrorist Usama Bin-Ladin (4 per cent), Russian Communist party leader Gennadiy Zyuganov (4 per cent), Nobel Prize winner Zhores Alferov (3 per cent), Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka (2 per cent), leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovskiy (2 per cent), Kemerovo Region's governor Aman Tuleyev (2 per cent), and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov (2 per cent).

In previous years, Russian men of the year included Vladimir Putin in 2000 and 1999, Yevgeniy Primakov in 1998, Boris Nemtsov in 1997, Aleksandr Lebed in 1996, [TV presenter] Vladislav Listyev in 1995, Vladimir Zhirinovskiy in 1994 and 1993, Boris Yeltsin in 1992, 1991, and 1990, and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989 and 1988.

Asked to name the woman of the year, 14 per cent of Russians chose Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko. Following Matviyenko are Union of Right Forces leader Irina Khakamada (9 per cent), pop singers Alla Pugacheva (7 per cent) and Alsou (2 per cent), President Putin's wife Lyudmila (2 per cent), first deputy speaker of the State Duma Lyubov Sliska (2 per cent), ex-minister and prominent public figure Ella Pamfilova (2 per cent), tennis player Anna Kurnikova (1 per cent), opera singer Galina Vishenvskaya (1 per cent), and stage comic performer Klara Novikova (1 per cent).

Last year, Russians also named Valentina Matviyenko woman of the year; in 1999 - Irina Khakamada, in 1998 - [politician] Galina Starovoytova and before that, Alla Pugacheva was named woman of the year for four years in a row.

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