After all amy be we are way to serious about both Time and Putin?

Is it an honor?
according to Time magazine Putin is the man of year!according to Time magazine Putin is the man of year! I doubt it. But it is another topic and I will get to this topic later in further postings.

Why Time did choose Putin?

They claim he made the most of the news during the year. But is it so?

It is difficult to not agree in this case with Wonkette: “Impossible to relate the lameness of this selection; It’s doubtful more than 17% of Time’s readership know who Putin is.”

Is it a Putin’s influence on news around the wrold?

Charts and data below generated by Google Trends show that Putin indeed had some splash in news this year.

But nothing huge (unlike, for example, Sarkozy,(see the chart below )

Petraeus (see the chart below )

or Ahmadinejad,(see the chart below )

all of whom namely this year got a huge bump in media attention).

What kind of news were generated about Putin during 2007?

According to Google there are 4 obvious peaks of Putin’s name in news.during 2007 (see the chart below )

#1 Putin hit the media attention when President Bush Meet with President Vladimir Putin. So this news was generated by both Bush and Putin or at least it was a news not about Putin per se but about his meeting with the president of the USA. He got attention because Bush was meeting with him.

#2 Putin got another splash of media attention is when President Bush invited Putin to visit him in his home in Maine. Same story: if there would be no invitation from Bush, there would be no news.

#3 it was Putin in Iran, when Putin’s people leaked rumors about alleged plot to assassinate him. Never mind that plot suspicion never materialized in anything but … media attention. He got it again.

#4 Putin’s name in news for the forth time during the year because Putin‘s party (surprise, surprise :)) wins Russian elections. Is it not expected to receive a bump in media attention due to elections is such important country as Russia? Besides, let us remember that the news was pretty much generated by obvious anti-democratic situation by the time of elections: after all, it was when the tsar was born.

So let us summarize: 4 bumps in the Putin’s importance in news during the year, 3 of them due to foreign visits, one bump is because of silly KGB-style rumors of assassination plot, and two bumps because Bush met with him and lastly because it was elections in his country. Is it enough for Time to proclaim him a man of the year? Yes, it is as we see.

Is it a public interest to Putin persona made him the man of the year?

Is Putin the Man of the Year basing on the people’s interest to him? Not true, according to Google. There is indeed significant inertest to Putin’s persona according to Google.

About 35.600.000 requests were made on Google with Putin’s name. ( see the chart)

Sounds like a lot but it is nothing in comparison with Bush, whose name was requested 210.000.000 times.

So people are interested in Bush about 7 times more than in Putin. We actually do not need Bush to

beat Putin in public interest. .

So Putin is not the leader who attracts the most attention this year from public.

But who are these people who are interested in Putin?

It would be reasonable to presume that American magazine will take in account somehow interest of American public to the person of the year. Well, reason is not the main driver of Time’s decisions, apparently.

According to Google Trends, ( the chart above) among 10 countries where info about Putin was requested #1 is Russia (understandably so), #2 is Romania : close neighbor and former satellite, then Viet Nam follows : former Russian satellite which explains a lot. Then, few Russia’s neighbors scared to death by Putin:

Austria, Finland , Poland and Germany. Then the neutral countries who historically are interested in making money and dealing with everybody, Nazis, Soviets, you name it: Switzerland and Sweden. List concludes Canada, closest to us but still the last in the list country. But what about the USA? The USA was not even in the list just few days ago and today ( thanks to Time magazine) it in the list but it is the last country in this list. . Why then Time which considered to be an American magazine is making Putin the man of year? Based on interest to Putin in Romania and Viet Nam? Why not for Russian or Romanian edition but for USA edition? US edition of Time is the English language edition, but the English language is 8^th among languages in which info about Putin was requested.

So according to Time, Putin is the 2007 year guy, but according to Google Putin is not even close. But Time is for sure promoting Putin

But I see the sense og humor of Time . of course Putin deserves to be a man of 2007. who else if not him? Now he is a truly the KGB agent 007