Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko topped the list of the 100 most influential women in Russia, compiled jointly by RIA Novosti, Ekho Moskvy radio station, Interfax news agency and Ogonyok weekly.
The 62-year-old head of the parliament’s upper chamber was trailed by pop legend Alla Pugachyova and presidential spokeswoman Natalya Timakova, who ranked second and third, respectively.
The top 10 also includes First Lady Svetlana Medvedeva, federal ministers Elvira Nabiullina and Tatiana Golikova, politically conscious socialite Ksenia Sobchak, head of the Moscow City Court Olga Yegorova, athlete-turned-lawmaker Alina Kabayeva and rights veteran Lyudmila Alexeyeva.
The list, the first of its kind, was compiled in several stages, starting with the Ekho Moskvy listeners submitting some 250 nominations through the radio’s web site.
The list was then scrutinized first by the station’s staff and then by a group of 24 experts, among them editors-in-chief of RIA Novosti, Ekho Moskvy and Ogonyok, Kirov Governor Nikita Belykh, a noted liberal, and Channel One head Konstantin Ernst.
The rating includes 22 representatives of the media world, 20 politicians and officials, 19 businesswomen, 16 civil activists, 14 artists, actresses, writers and TV personalities, and 9 athletes.
Entries on the list also include Lyudmila Putina, wife of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (13); A Just Russia lawmaker and rising political star Oksana Dmitriyeva (15); RIA Novosti’s own editor-in-chief Svetlana Mironyuk (25); rock singer Zemfira (26); writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya (48); Natalya Kasperskaya of Kaspersky Lab security software maker (66); model Natalya Vodyanova (80); and former spy Anna Chapman (90).
