MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin was ranked the third most powerful person in the world by Forbes magazine in its annual rating.
US President Barack Obama tops the list for a second year in a row.
Obama is followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Third place went to Putin, who was second on Forbes’ 2011 most powerful list.
This year’s 71-person list also features Microsoft founder Bill Gates (#4), Pope Benedict XVI (#5), Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping (#9), British Prime Minister David Cameron (#10), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (#25), UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (#30) and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (#48).