Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin-maintain the most influential figure in the world till New Year by SHEIR 339 readers' poll titled:

"Who is the most influential person in the World?"

Vladimir Putin has been voted the most influential person in the world ahead of Barack Obama, Angela Markel and King Salman of KSA, according to Society of Higher Education & Industrial Research (SHEIR).

Online voting by SHEIR readers for the month of December/January 2015/16 title closed on 13/1/16, with the Russian President Mr Putin taking 44% of the vote from all around the world.

This End of the year 2015 voting confirmed the earlier survey conducted by time magazine, with similar results, which was closed in April 2015 (http://time.com/3820069/time-100-readers-poll-results/). Times results were greeted by the state-owned Russian news agency Sputnik News as a victory for Mr Putin (http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150414/1020858140.html).

In November 2014, Putin was named the world's most influential person by Forbes for the second year, followed by US President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

In 2007, The Russian president was also named Person of the Year by Time magazine for performing an "extraordinary leadership in improving national stability in the country and bringing Russia back to the table of world power." In 2013, Vladimir Putin was named The Times International Person of the Year for succeeding in his determination of bringing Moscow back to international attention. In 2014, Putin finished third in Time's ranking.

SHEIR said the majority of votes (60 per cent) came from within the Pakistan. The rest were spread relatively broadly around the world, with India and the USA second and third for voters with 30 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.