Putin Tops Forbes' List Of Russia's Most Influential People

Putin Tops Forbes' List of Russia's Most Influential People

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ranked first on Forbes' list of Russia's 100 most influential government officials, businesspeople, top managers and law enforcement officers, published on the media's website on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th August, 2018) Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ranked first on Forbes' list of Russia's 100 most influential government officials, businesspeople, top managers and law enforcement officers, published on the media's website on Thursday.

Sberbank CEO Herman Gref came in second, followed by CEO of energy company Gazprom Alexey Miller.

"Vladimir Putin automatically topped the list as the person who has taken second place in the US Forbes' list of the world's most powerful people," Forbes said.

CEO of oil giant Rosneft Igor Sechin took fourth place, while Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was ranked fifth.

The top 10 also features CEO of oil company Surgutneftegaz Vladimir Bogdanov, head of the country's Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina, Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov, Russian Railways CEO Oleg Belozerov and Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was unclear which criteria had been used for the ranking.

"Naturally, one does not need to be clairvoyant to place Putin on top, there is nothing surprising about it. Apart from that, quite a weird list," the spokesman said.

Around 1,500 nominations have been provided, including businesspersons, directors of major companies and banks, heads of law enforcement agencies, speakers of both houses of the Russian parliament and their deputies, as well as members of regional governments. All nominations were then evaluated based on several factors, including number of subordinates, income, the ability to directly influence people's lives or certain sectors, as well as closeness to the country's president or ruling party.